OpenAI’s board removed Sam Altman as CEO on November 17, 2023 and named Mira Murati interim CEO. The board said Altman had not been consistently candid in communications with it. It gave the public no specific incident to evaluate.
I think that lack of detail was a governance problem of its own. A board can have good reasons it cannot disclose immediately. Yet OpenAI had employees, customers, and a major partner depending on it. The board needed a credible plan for continuity alongside the decision.
There was no public evidence for the private cause beyond the board’s statement, and events moved faster than a long interim search. Altman returned as CEO later in November under a new initial board, and Murati returned to the CTO role. That outcome does not tell us every private reason behind the firing. It does show how quickly the board lost the ability to keep the company together.