Mira Murati and Sam Altman shared a frantic text exchange during his brief 2023 ouster as CEO of OpenAI.
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images, left; Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images, right.
Mira Murati and Sam Altman shared a heated text exchange during his 2023 ouster as CEO of OpenAI.
Altman pleads desperately for his job back as Murati tells him, "They don't want you."
The texts were shown to jurors in the ongoing Musk v Altman civil trial in Oakland, California.
She was the interim CEO. He was the newly ousted CEO. And in a stream of text messages spanning two daysin November 2023, they had a lot to say to each other.
The exchange shows Altman desperately pushing to return to the company he helped cofound — as Murati, who is on the phone with board members, throws cold water on his comeback dreams.
"They're convinced about their decision," she tells him. And when Altman asks, "for me to be fired? or some new thing?" she answers, "Yes, for you to be gone."
Here are the best portions of the historic exchange.
Altman asks early in the exchange how things are going, "directionally." She answers, "very bad."
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Murati and Altman's begin texting at 5:43 p.m., Pacific Time, on November 19, 2023.
Altman — apparently locked out of OpenAI's offices — asks Murati to "officially invite me to the office for a meeting."
"I'm about to speak with them," she tells Altman, referring to the board that fired him.
Some seven hours later — it's now after 2 a.m. on November 20 — Altman asks for an update on her call with board members.
"Can you indicate directionally good or bad?" he asks, noting that "Satya" — Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, which had a big investment in OpenAI, is "concerned."
"Directionally very bad," Murati said.
Altman offers to help "make it better" — even if that means he'll "just walk away."Text exchange between Sam Altman and Mira Murati after his OpenAI ouster in 2023
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"What do you want to make it better? I'm still willing to walk away if that helps," Altman tells Murati as the text exchange continues.
He worries in the exchange that the board may be "ramped up for crazy lawsuits against me," and pleads again to be heard by the board.
"They're convinced about their decision," she tells him.
"For me to be fired? or some new thing?" he asks.
She tells him, "Yes for you to be gone."
Microsoft, which had a big investment in OpenAI, gets involvedText exchange between Sam Altman and Mira Murati after his OpenAI ouster in 2023
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Altman presses Murati for speed, asking "can you wrap up soon? lots of pressure from msft for an update."
"Sam this is very bad," she answers. And when Altman asks again for permission to come to the OpenAI office, she tells him, "They don't want you to."
Altman asks a third time to meet with the board — "They're saying no," she tells him again.Text exchange between Sam Altman and Mira Murati after his OpenAI ouster in 2023
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"Ok," Altman says, still desperate to speak to the board. "Then can i come in and talk about a path forward with them?"
"They're saying no and they need more time," Murati says. When Altman asks "more time for what?" she breaks the news to him that he — and she — are being replaced.
"They want a new ceo in place," Murati tells him.
The new CEO "is rando twitch guy," she tells him minutes later. "They don't want you."
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Just ten minutes later, Altman asks again — "still don't want me?"
"New guy is rando twitch guy," she responds. When Altman guesses it's "emmett?" — she tells him "Yeah."
Emmett Shear, who was quickly replaced by Altman after Microsoft stepped in, changed his X banner to "new guy is rando Twitch guy" using screenshots from the newly released text messages.
"They don't care if everyone quits," Murati tells Altman, who hopes — correctly it turns out — otherwise.Text exchange between Sam Altman and Mira Murati after his OpenAI ouster in 2023
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Murati tells Altman that she hopes Nadella "can help undo this," meaning his ouster. But she's not optimistic, even if Altman is successful in rallying the staff and cofounders to his side.
"They don't care if everyone quits," she tells Altman, who meanwhile worries if the board wants to cut a deal transferring OpenAI's intellectual property to Anthropic.
"Is that what they want is the IP going to anthropic?" Altman asks.
"That's what the team thinks," she texts him, adding that the board remains firm in wanting Altman to have nothing to do with OpenAI's push for Artificial General Intelligence.
"Just not your hand on agi," she texts. "I can not come back!" he answers.
"What if msft acquires openai?"Text exchange between Sam Altman and Mira Murati after his OpenAI ouster in 2023
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More minutes pass — and more texts.
Murati tells Altman that she and other board members are on a call with Nadella — and Altman asks her, "what if msft acquires openai?"
"I think you all just need to get a petition of everyone saying they will quit…"
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The exchange ends with Altman broaching a plan that, within hours, would get him reinstalled as CEO of OpenAI: get "everyone" to sign a petition threatening to quit.
"I'm on board," Murati tells Altman.
"I think it's best shot to get company back and keep people," Altman tells her. "I think you all just need to get a petition of everyone saying they will quit and join" Microsoft.
"lmk if you have a minute for a call?" he asks Murati, and the text exchange ends.
Later that day, some 600 employees — some 95 percent of OpenAI's staff — signed a letter threatening to quit en masse to work for Microsoft. It successfully demanded that Altman be reinstated as CEO and that the board that fired him resign.