From Quora’s Adam D’Angelo to Ilya Sutskever, meet the people behind Sam Altman's OpenAI ouster

On Friday night, the OpenAI board, through a Google Meet session, shockingly terminated Sam Altman from his position for what was cited as a lack of “consistently candid communication.” Adding to the upheaval, Greg Brockman was also ousted from the board and subsequently resigned from OpenAI. The aftermath of these dismissals saw several key OpenAI researchers, including Jakub Pachocki, departing from the organization. In a swift move, Mira Murati assumed the role of interim CEO for a brief period, until the appointment of Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch, as the new chief executive. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella tried to moderate the insurrection within OpenAI and tried to play kingmaker, and reach a common solution between. When the talks to reinstate Altman failed, Nadella offered Altman, Brockman and many other top scientists and executives from OpenAI to join Microsoft and lead a research project. However, since then, reports have surfaced that the Microsoft offer may have been a ruse by Nadella to protect Microsoft’s stock from tanking significantly when the markets reopened on Monday. The board’s decision to remove Altman sparked significant criticism, with Sutsveker being labelled as the mastermind behind the move. This decision led to a shake-up in the board, bringing in new faces to fill the void. Quora’s Adam D’Angelo Adam D’Angelo, known for his role as the co-founder and CEO of Quora and former Facebook CTO, joined the OpenAI board in 2018. With a long-standing involvement in AI and machine learning, D’Angelo has been a key figure in the industry since high school when he co-developed the Synapse Media Player alongside Mark Zuckerberg, utilizing ML algorithms for song recommendations. At Quora, D’Angelo spearheaded the launch of Poe, a generative AI chatbot platform featuring diverse AI models such as ChatGPT, Sage, Claude-instant, Claude-instant-100k, and Claude+. Poe offers users a range of chatbot personalities, fostering engaging dialogues with AI. Quora is actively developing an API to integrate AI developers’ models into Poe, expanding its accessibility and functionalities, and recently introduced creator monetization to generate revenue. Tasha McCauley, a leading figure in robotics Tasha McCauley, a prominent robotics engineer and tech entrepreneur, has been a driving force in the field of robotics and technology. Currently serving as the CEO of GeoSim Systems, focused on developing virtual city models, McCauley has also held positions such as the co-founder and CEO of Fellow Robots. Her contributions to advancing robotics in retail and various industries have been noteworthy, complemented by her background in academic and research roles. McCauley, who has been a faculty member at Singularity University, further expanded her expertise by joining RAND Corporation in 2023 as an adjunct senior management scientist. Helen Toner, an influential figure in AI policy and development Helen Toner, recognized as a key influencer in AI with a specific focus on policy and strategic development, holds a significant position as the director of strategy and foundational research grants at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET). Responsible for guiding strategic initiatives and managing research grants, Toner plays a crucial role in shaping policies and strategies around emerging technologies, particularly AI. Before joining CSET, she served as a senior research analyst at the Open Philanthropy Project and became a member of the OpenAI board in 2021. Ilya Sutskever And finally, we have Ilya Sutskever, another cofounder and chief scientist at OpenAI. Sutskever’s played a central role in the controversial dismissal of Altman and Brockman. Recognized as a leading figure in computer science, Sutskever, before launching OpenAI in 2014, worked at Google Brain for about three years, contributing significantly to sequence modelling, machine translation, and projects like TensorFlow and AlphaGo. Sutskever, who co-authored the influential paper ‘ImageNet Classification with Deep Convolutional Neural Networks,’ has consistently prioritized research and innovation in AI. However, his involvement in the decision to remove Altman and Brockman has sparked controversy, with reports suggesting his regret over the move. In a surprising turn, Sutskever has publicly supported Altman and said that he regrets terminating him, and even went on to sign an open letter by OpenAI employees demanding the board’s resignation and Altman’s reinstatement as CEO. The letter, reportedly boasting over 700 signatures, adds another layer of complexity to the unfolding saga at OpenAI. (With input from agencies)