Sam Altman faced significant disappointment when he was removed from his position as the CEO of OpenAI. In a radio interview with Trevor Noah that aired on Thursday, Altman mentioned, “The only similar set of life experiences I had, and that one was of course many worse.”
Altman’s termination occurred suddenly on November 17, only to be reversed a few days later following a tumultuous leadership transition that introduced two interim CEOs.
Reflecting on his challenging time at OpenAI on the latest season of “What Nowadays?” by @spotifypodcasts, Altman provided personal insights. He compared his dismissal to the profound grief he experienced when his father passed away in 2018 at the age of 67 due to a heart attack. Altman described the ordeal as “unbelievably agonizing,” sharing how he had to promptly handle his father’s affairs before fully grasping the situation’s reality.
Drawing connections between these events, Altman commented, “So that was much worse.”
Altman’s abrupt exit from ChatGPT creator left the tech industry in shock. OpenAI’s board cited Altman’s alleged lack of transparency in communications as the cause for his removal, leading to widespread protests within the organization, with most employees threatening to resign if Altman was not reinstated.
In a message to the company on November 29, Altman expressed appreciation for the team, saying, “I’m certain books will be written about this time interval, and I hope the first thing they say is how wonderful the whole group has been.”
Despite efforts to contact Altman for a statement, Business Insider did not receive an immediate response from his representatives outside of regular business hours.
