A timeline of the unfolding crisis at OpenAI

Sam Altman is out as CEO of the company he founded, OpenAI. We've been first to report on this rapidly developing story every step of the way.

Here's the play-by-play of what went down:

• Internal arguments among employees about whether OpenAI was developing artificial intelligence safely enough had been simmering before things came to a head.
• On Friday afternoon, the OpenAI board dropped a bombshell with an announcement that it had ousted CEO Sam Altman after finding he was “not consistently candid in his communications” with them.
• Top executives at Microsoft, which committed more than $10 billion in the company at the start of the year, were blindsided by the Altman news, getting a heads up from OpenAI only five to 10 minutes before it was made public.
• Four hours later, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, the executive responsible for ChatGPT and other key products, quit the company, as a result of Altman’s defenestration.
• Brockman's departure was followed by three senior researchers who suddenly resigned Friday night.

Of course, our reporters have only cracked part of the story, and one explanation is noticeably still missing: Altman’s.

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