More than 100 Silicon Valley CEOs are part of a private WhatsApp group which blew up following Sam Altman’s ouster from OpenAI, according to a report in The New York Times. The group exploded with questions on November 17, when the board of OpenAI announced CEO Sam Altman had been sacked and would be replaced by interim CEO Mira Murati.
Altman, 38, returned as CEO of the AI startup within a few days. However, the immediate aftermath of his ouster was felt keenly in the private WhatsApp group, per the NYT report.
When news of Altman’s firing broke, a text landed in the group: “Sam is out.”
Immediately, the group blew up with questions. What did Sam do, wondered the CEOs who are part of the WhatsApp group. Nobody knew the answer, apparently.
According to the report, the private WhatsApp group includes Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Dropbox’s Drew Houston, among others.
What led to Altman’s ouster remains unclear till date. However, he was reinstated as CEO on November 21. The board that fired Altman from his role as CEO of the ChatGPT creator has been almost entirely replaced following a rebellion by employees, cementing his position at the helm of the firm.
Altman’s abrupt sacking led to some – like Elon Musk -- wondering if OpenAI could be doing something dangerous. “Why did you take such a drastic action?” Elon Musk asked OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever who had a hand in Altman’s sacking. “If OpenAI is doing something potentially dangerous to humanity, the world needs to know,” Musk added.
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