Former OpenAI Board Member Dishes on Reasons Why They Ousted Sam Altman

When OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman was ousted as the firm’s CEO last fall, the decision was hard to unravel. At the time, the board issued a vague statement saying he hadn’t been “consistently candid,” but Altman eventually won the boardroom battle and was reinstated after employees rallied to his side.

Now, former board member Helen Toner is explaining her decision. In a new podcast interview, the artificial intelligence researcher blasted Altman’s lack of transparency and said the board was kept in the dark about key decisions. She accused Altman of “withholding information, misrepresenting things that were happening in the company, [and] in some cases outright lying to the board.”

Toner said she could not publicly reveal every alleged deception, but she offered several examples. For instance, when OpenAI’s flagship product, ChatGPT, debuted in November 2022, she said, the board did not know in advance that it would be launched. “We learned about ChatGPT on Twitter,” she said.

Read more at The Daily Beast.