[DylanBohlender]

So this is probably indicative of a scandal of some sort right?

[jurgenaut23]

Yes, very likely Altman has done something _very_ wrong, and the board wants to maintain plausible deniability.

[rococode]

Somewhat hidden beneath the huge headline of Altman being kicked out is that Brockman (chairman) is also out. Which could indicate something more systemically wrong than just a typical "CEO did something bad" situation.

> As a part of this transition, Greg Brockman will be stepping down as chairman of the board and will remain in his role at the company, reporting to the CEO.

[rchaud]

I would have thought that being CEO of Worldcoin would have been bad enough optics-wise from having him take a top role at a serious company.

[Iv]

The board discovered that the process `GPT5-training` that has been running for months on their über-datacenter was actually mining bitcoins.

[renecito]

is always about money, even immoral behavior falls down to potential economic impact.

my 2 cents that he lied about profitability, they should be expending massive money in operations, they need to cut cost to deliver an attractive business model for their service and from a shinny startup star boss that'd had to be a straight f.u.

[resource0x]

Not _very_ wrong, just duping investors about the technical and financial prospects of the company. Nothing serious /s

[lumost]

On paper, Sam Altman would have made everyone on the board billionaires. For them to vote him out in this manner indicates that he must have done something egregious to jeopardize that.

Lying on P&L, stock sale agreements, or turning down an acquisition offer under difficult circumstances seems likely.

[saliagato]

We all know what. HN moderators are deleting all related comments.

Edit: dang is right, sorry y’all

[kylediaz]

It could possibly have to do with his sister's allegations. It's one of the top autocomplete results when you google "sam altman", so people are definitely talking about it.

[wslh]

This? https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman...

[atlasunshrugged]

His sister had levied allegations of abuse

https://www.themarysue.com/annie-altmans-abuse-allegations-a...

[nostrademons]

I doubt that's it. In general sexual shenanigans in your personal life will get you a quiet departure from the company under the "X has retired to spend more time with family / pursue other adventures / start a foundation". Andy Rubin got a $90M severance payout from Google after running a sex-slave dungeon on his personal time.

The wording of this statement is the kind of thing a board says when the company has done something deeply illegal that they will all face personal jail time for, and so they need to immediately deny all knowledge of the offense and fire the people who did have knowledge of it.

[OfficialTurkey]

I don't think this is it. The allegations aren't brand new and the board says he lied.

[kccqzy]

It's clear that neither Sam nor his sister[0] wants to discuss this.

[0]: https://x.com/phuckfilosophy/status/1710371830043939122

[sparkling]

From the website:

> "[...] If someone — correction, if generally a white, cis man — presents himself with enough confidence, then venture capitalists, media [...]"

I stopped reading right there. This kind of race-baiting adds zero context to the story (which may or may not be true).

[blindriver]

I thought Sam Altman was gay. The accusations of sexual abuse don't seem to line up. And her accusations that he is shadowbanning her on social media sounds mentally unstable.

[stg22]

"he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board" = "He lied to us about something important"

Murati's selection as interim CEO is a surprise and might be an attempt to distance the company from whatever the board is claiming Altman lied about.

[prepend]

Sounds more like some strategic difference of opinion.

My guess is that either they’re financially super hosed. Or one group wants to build skynet and one doesn’t.

A scandal would probably be something along the lines of either “we love him and wish him the best” (hidden) or “he doesn’t represent the values of our org and we love XYz” (embraced)

[jurgenaut23]

No, this passage tells me that the board wants to cover their ass: "he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board [...]. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI."

It's not just a "hey, we don't really agree on x or y so let's part ways". It's more "hey, this guy did something that could get us in jail if we don't cut tie immediately".

[threatofrain]

Would you call your CEO a liar just because of a strategic difference in opinion?

[wslh]

I doubt they are financially hosed.

I don't know about the Skynet because it has happened 26 years before [1] but I imagine NSA, the Military, and other government agencies approached the company.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_2:_Judgment_Day

[Bjorkbat]

His sister on Twitter made some pretty crazy abuse allegations against him a while back, but it didn't seem to get much coverage outside of the usual Twitter crowd.

But who knows, maybe there's a connection.

[buffington]

I don't use Twitter, nor do I really pay attention to Sam Altman, but the allegations of abuse are things I've seen covered.

Your use of "crazy abuse allegations" is strange to me as well. I hardly see any of her allegations as being "crazy".

Here's a collection of things she's said about the abuse.

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman...

[golergka]

Those kinds of news are usually sugar coated to the point of caramelisation. This one isn't. It must be something very ugly.

[caust1c]

Not sure that there can be any other interpretation based on my reading of it.

[cvhashim04]

Hostile takeover? Board politics?

[shepardrtc]

Satya going for the throat