In this case, OpenAI’s Board comprised six members, Sam, Ilya, Greg, and three independent executives: Adam, the CEO of Quora, Tasha McCauley, a Tech Entrepreneur, and Helen Toner. Decisions are typically made through majority voting, and in this scenario, Sam wouldn’t fire himself obviously.
So only five directors remain. Apart from firing Sam, the board of directors dismissed Greg too. This suggests that Greg likely did not vote against Sam. With only four individuals remaining, namely Ilya, Adam, Tasha, and Helen, these four informed Sam of their decision
to fire him via a Google Meet call. The public was not provided with much information about the reason behind this.
The board vaguely mentioned issues with Sam’s communication and hinted that he may have been concealing information. After their termination, neither Sam nor Greg issued any statements explaining the circumstances. Sam expressed his disappointment on Twitter. This was a shocking decision in the tech world. The abrupt firing of such a powerful and influential CEO by four members of the Board.
