New Things Have Come To Light

The Information offers us new information about what happened when the board if AI unsuccessfully tried to fire Sam Altman, which I call The Battle of the Board. The Information: OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever shared new details on the internal conflicts that led to Sam Altman's initial firing, including a memo alleging Altman exhibited a “consistent pattern of lying.” Liv: Lots of people dismiss Sam's behaviour as typical for a CEO but I really think we can and should demand better of the guy who thinks he's building the machine god. Toucan: From Ilya's deposition— • Ilya plotted over a year with Mira to remove Sam • Dario wanted Greg fired and himself in charge of all research • Mira told Ilya that Sam pitted her against Daniela • Ilya wrote a 52 page memo to get Sam fired and a separate doc on Greg

This Really Was Primarily A Lying And Management Problem

Daniel Eth: A lot of the OpenAI boardroom drama has been blamed on EA – but looks like it really was overwhelmingly an Ilya & Mira led effort, with EA playing a minor role and somehow winding up [...]

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Outline:

(00:12) New Things Have Come To Light

(01:09) This Really Was Primarily A Lying And Management Problem

(03:23) Ilya Tells Us How It Went Down And Why He Tried To Do It

(06:17) If You Come At The King

(07:31) Enter The Scapegoats

(08:13) And In Summary

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First published:
November 4th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/iRBhXJSNkDeohm69d/openai-the-battle-of-the-board-ilya-s-testimony

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“OpenAI: The Battle of the Board: Ilya’s Testimony” by Zvi

LessWrong (30+ Karma)