Possible Reasons that Led to Sam Altman’s Departure from OpenAI

Dr. A. Sedek
4 min readNov 18, 2023

The tech world stood still for a moment when the news of Sam Altman’s sudden departure as CEO of OpenAI broke. While the stated reason involves a lack of candor with the board, a deeper look into the dynamics and recent events surrounding OpenAI suggests a more complex picture, revealing the possible real reasons behind the decision that shook the AI community.

OpenAI, a major player in artificial intelligence, faced a tough decision. The company aimed to combine advanced AI technology with human values, which was good for business but also raised ethical and social questions. The main challenge was finding the right balance between quickly bringing AI products to market and making sure they were safe. This challenge was highlighted by the different opinions of Sam Altman, the CEO, and his co-founder, Ilya Sutskever.

Ilya Sutskever, who led research at OpenAI, favored a careful approach. He stressed the importance of safety as the gap between Open-Source AI developed openly for everyone and AI made by private companies kept growing. After Sam Altman left, Sutskever’s growing influence on the board indicated a shift in focus. The company started to pay more attention to how AI affects society, rather than just how much money it could make.

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