Q: Sam, I would like to address, first, the elephant in the room, which is that we still don’t know exactly why you were fired to begin with. Why do you think you were fired?
Sam Altman: The board is going to do an independent review here. I very much welcome that. I don’t have much else to say now, but I’m looking forward to learning more.
Q: Why do you think the board said it lost trust in you?
S Altman: That will be a better question for them.
Q: You said on Twitter just now that “it’s clear that there were real misunderstandings” between yourself and members of the board. What were those misunderstandings?
S A: I don’t feel ready to go talk about that yet. I think it’s very important to let this review process run. I’m happy to talk about anything forward-looking. And I imagine there will be some time where I’m very happy to talk about what happened here, but not now.
Q: Can you tell me why you can’t talk about it right now?
A: I just want to let this process go and not interfere.

Q: You talked about Ilya Sutskever [OpenAI’s chief scientist] in your note [to employees]. Can you let me in a little bit on why he changed his mind and decided to side with everyone else?
Mira Murati: We don’t know. You’d have to ask Ilya that.

Q: Sam, what was, in hindsight, the main driving force here that got you to come back?
A: It was really interesting. Saturday morning, some of the board called me and asked if I’d be up for talking about it. And my immediate reaction was sort of one of defiance. It was like, “Man, I’m hurt and angry, and I think this sucks.”

And then, pretty immediately, I started thinking about, like, obviously, I really loved the company and had poured my life force into this for the last 4 and a half years full time, but really longer than that with most of my time. And we’re making such great progress on the mission I care so much about, the mission of safe and beneficial AGI. But also the people here and all of the partners who have taken such big bets on us, and Mira and the leadership team and all of the people here who do incredible work. It took me a few minutes to snap out of it and get over the ego and emotions to then be like, “Yeah, of course I want to do that.”
Q: It was clear that the employees were with you. How big of a factor do you think that was?
A: Definitely we have come through this with a stronger and more unified and focused and committed team. I thought we had great conviction and focus before, and now I think we have way, way, way more. So that’s my silver lining to all of this.

Q: …Do you want back on the board?
A: This is going to sound like a PR talking point: it’s not my area of focus right now. I have a mountain of very difficult, important, and urgent work. I want to be able to do my job well, but it’s not like [being] on the board or not. That’s not the thing I’m spending my time thinking about right now.

Q: …The reports about the Q^✱ model breakthrough that you all recently made, what’s going on there?
A: No particular comment on that unfortunate leak.

Q: …Last question: I am sure you’re still thinking through all this. I know it’s very fresh. What lesson have you learned from this whole saga?
A: I learned that the company can truly function without me, and that’s a very nice thing. I’m very happy to be back, don’t get me wrong on that. But I come back without any of the stress of, “Oh man, I got to do this, or the company needs me or whatever.” I selfishly feel good because either I picked great leaders or I mentored them well. It’s very nice to feel like the company will be totally fine without me, and the team is ready and has leveled up. [cf. official statement from Altman about how Altman is completely replaceable by the existing team & it’s no big deal if Altman were to stop being CEO for some reason…]