Revealing the Motives Behind OpenAI's Change in Leadership {Infographic}

An infographic sometimes makes complex concepts and stories easier to digest.

Here is an infographic about the leadership dynamics at OpenAI that adds pictures and a flow chart which help communicate the story:

Inforgraphic produced by Nicolas Boucher.

For those of you who were on vacation on an remote off-the-grid island or in a coma, here is a written summary of the events which occurred since Friday (11/17):

Sam Altman was fired as CEO of OpenAI by four members of the board of directors due to a disagreement over the company's commercial direction and safety measures in the coding of the company’s LLM. Altman had been pursuing a more commercial strategy, which clashed with the board's vision of OpenAI as a research-focused organization. Greg Brockman, co-founder and president of OpenAI, resigned in protest to Altman's firing. Mira Murati, was name the new CEO. She was expected to steer OpenAI back towards its original goals while a CEO search got underway.

The leadership changes at OpenAI were based on a shift in power dynamics within the board. OpenAI’s business has outgrown the company’s corporate structure (more here). A faction supporting OpenAI's original research-focused mission — especially around responsible development and use of AI — has gained control, leading to Altman's firing and Brockman's resignation.

Yesterday, Emmett Shear, the former CEO of video-streaming platform Twitch, was named interim CEO of OpenAI and Mira Murati assigned Microsoft account management responsibilities at the executive level. Shear insists that all is well between the AI firm and Microsoft—but it appears from his Twitter/X feed and other social media posts he wasn't a fan of Microsoft while working for the company during an earlier phase in his career.

Since Thanksgiving occurs this week, we should give thanks for our family and the feast, and also the amazing saga which transpired in the Silicon Valley.

Have a great holiday!