In BriefPosted:1:22 PM PDT March 29, 2025Image Credits:Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket / Getty ImagesSam Altman firing drama detailed in new book excerptAn excerpt from the upcoming book The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future offers new details about why OpenAIs board briefly fired CEO Sam Altman back in 2023.Written by Wall Street Journal reporter Keach Hagey, the book claims the nonprofits board members became increasingly concerned after learning about issues such as an OpenAI Startup Fund that was actually personally owned by Altman.At the same time, co-founder Ilya Sutskever and CTO Mira Murati were reportedly collecting evidence of what they saw as Altmans toxic and dishonest behavior, complete with screenshots from Muratis Slack channel. For example, Altman allegedly claimed the companys legal department said GPT-4 Turbo didnt need to be reviewed by the joint safety board, but the companys top lawyer denied saying that.After Sutskever provided this evidence to board members, they moved to oust Altman and appoint Murati as interim CEO. But this quickly backfired, with OpenAI employees (including Sutskever and Murati) signing a letter demanding Altmans return which he soon did, with Sutskever and Murati subsequently leaving to launch startups of their own.Topics