Sam Altman’s constant lies created toxic culture, reveals OpenAI’s ex-Board member

OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman allegedly created a toxic culture in the company, revealed Helen Toner, one of four people responsible for firing him.

The former OpenAI board member dropped bombshell revelations about Altman's  alleged constant lies creating a toxic culture more than six months after Sam Altman was fired and then rehired.

“For any individual case, Sam could always come up with some kind of innocuous-sounding explanation of why it wasn’t a big deal or why it was misinterpreted or whatever,” Toner said in her first long-form interview since Sam Altman’s firing.

“After years of this kind of thing, all four of us who fired him came to the conclusion that we just couldn’t believe the things that Sam was telling us.”

Shedding light on how it all started, Toner told The Ted AI Show that it was in October 2023 when two executives came to OpenAI’s board with serious allegations against Altman. They showed the board screenshots of Altman’s manipulation and lying, saying that they couldn't trust him.

The testimonies from the two executives forced the Board to fire Altman weeks later, according to Toner.

Toner also noted that the Board was not informed in advance when ChatGPT was launched in November 2022, revealing that she “learned about ChatGPT on Twitter.” She also claimed that information about the safety processes that Altman gave at OpenAI was inaccurate. He also tried to get her fired after she wrote a research paper about OpenAI’s safety practices.