{"id":79535,"date":"2023-12-01T03:00:59","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T08:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/?p=79535"},"modified":"2025-02-19T06:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T11:49:12","slug":"sam-altman-timeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/sam-altman-timeline\/","title":{"rendered":"A Timeline Of Sam Altman and OpenAI [Infographic]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It’s been a fast-paced November at OpenAI with a series events that caused uproar at the company (and the Internet).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you were online between Nov 17-Nov 22, I’m sure you couldn’t escape the words Sam Altman and\/or OpenAI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help make sense of everything that happened, we’ve created a timeline summarizing all the key details.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"OpenAI<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Nov 17: Sam Altman is dismissed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On Nov 16, Sam Altman received a text from the OpenAI board to join a Google Meet the following day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the meeting, Sam Altman was let go with Microsoft being one of the first to hear the news. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same day, OpenAI President Greg Brockman resigned in solidarity as initial reports began flooding the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nov 18: Mia Murati appointed as interim CEO<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Following Sam Altman’s dismissal, COO Brad Lightcap’s internal memo which cited a “breakdown in communication” with Altman began circulating as the main reason behind the decision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And before people could even process the news, OpenAI appointed its CTO, Mia Murati, as interim CEO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nov 19: Microsoft announces hiring of Sam Altman<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With Sam Altman a free agent, rumors about his future began to take off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Altman himself said he was considering starting a new AI startup while Microsoft, a major investor and partner of OpenAI. announced it had hired Altman to lead a new research division at the company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nov 20: Former Twitch boss Emmett Shear announced as OpenAI CEO, tweet goes viral<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It had seemed as if the matter was more or less resolved by day 4, but there were more twists and turns to come. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unhappy with the way Altman was dismissed and the future of the company, over 500 OpenAI employees shared an open letter threatening to resign if Altman was not reinstated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this was happening, OpenAI announced the appointment of another CEO by the name of former Twitch boss Emett Shear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After this, former interim CEO, Mia Murati, also joined in support of Altman by tweeting “OpenAI is nothing without its people”, which quickly started trending. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nov 21: OpenAI announces it has reached a deal to reinstate Sam Altman as CEO<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The next day, more support for Sam Altman was shared with OpenAI board member Ilya Sutskever expressing regret over the firing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With pressure mounting and public backlash growing (and lots of behind-the-scenes negotiating), OpenAI announced that it had reached an agreement with Altman to return as CEO and install a new board. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who is Sam Altman?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You’ve been hearing his name, but who exactly is Sam Altman? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam Altman is an American entrepreneur and a co-founder of OpenAI, a non-profit research company that promotes friendly artificial general intelligence. He is also the former president of Y Combinator, a startup accelerator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He dropped out of Stanford University in 2005 to start his own company called Loopt which was a mobile social networking app that allowed users to share their location with friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After selling Loopt, Altman joined Y Combinator as a partner and became president in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, Altman co-founded OpenAI and became its CEO in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Altman is a controversial figure. He has been criticized for his views on artificial intelligence but is also respected for his intelligence and his commitment to using technology to make the world a better place.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Create beautiful infographics and more with Venngage <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Like this infographic and want to create your own?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out our Infographic Maker!<\/a> Our drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to create beautiful infographic in seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get started, sign up for a free account<\/a>. You\u2019ll also get access to features such as AI-enabled alt text and the ability to create an entire infographic from a prompt. Alternately, you can pick a infographic template<\/a> from our library of professionally-designed infographics, swap in your content, and you\u2019re ready to go!<\/p>\n\n\n\n