Courtroom Drama Unveils Big Scoop: OpenAI's former CTO Murati was the Mastermind behind Altman's Firing

According to Dynamic Beating's monitoring, OpenAI's former board member Helen Toner's video testimony in the Musk v. Altman case was played to the jury this week, directly accusing former CTO Mira Murati (now founder of the AI startup Thinking Machines Lab) as the key driver behind Altman's dismissal in 2023, but quickly distanced herself afterwards.

Toner outlined the reasons the board fired Altman: "a pattern of behavior involving honesty and candor, resistance to board oversight," and "complaints from two members of his core management team to the board about his management style and control of the board process." Murati was one of the key individuals who raised complaints to the board.

Former Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever's testimony records spelled out a more complete chain of events. Sutskever's 52-page memo to the board, with screenshots that were "mostly or entirely" from Murati. Slack records, text messages, internal documents—she handed them to Sutskever batch by batch, which he compiled and presented to the three independent directors, D'Angelo, Toner, and McCauley. Murati's contributions were not limited to internal OpenAI materials. She also told Sutskever that Altman's departure from Y Combinator (Silicon Valley's most prominent startup accelerator, where Altman served as president) was also due to similar issues: "creating chaos, starting new projects everywhere, fostering opposition, so he couldn't manage YC well." This cross-organizational information was included in the memo to demonstrate that Altman's behavior patterns were not incidental.

On the day of the dismissal, the board discussed who should notify Microsoft CEO Nadella. Toner's testimony stated that Murati volunteered, claiming she had the closest relationship with Nadella and was the most suitable person to deliver the message. The board agreed. She informed Nadella: Altman had been removed from his position, she would serve as interim CEO, and the company would initiate the selection of a new CEO.

However, the situation reversed within days as employees collectively demanded Altman's return. The executive team warned the board at a meeting: "If Sam doesn't come back, the company is finished." Toner's response was essentially, "That also aligns with OpenAI's mission," with Sutskever noting she was even more direct than that.

WIRED reporter Max Zeff reported live from the courtroom, stating that in her testimony, Toner said that after the reversal, Murati "completely unintentionally failed to inform her own team about how much her conversation with the board influenced the dismissal decision," "refused to stick her neck out," and was concerned about her own professional future. Toner's exact words: "She was waiting to see which way the wind was blowing, but she didn't realize, she was the wind itself."

Murati also testified in court this week. She claimed to have maintained close contact with Nadella, with text messages presented to the court showing her asking Nadella to call to coordinate "how to talk with Sam here," and texting, "Don't let the researchers be poached by Demis or Elon." She referred to Nadella as the "voice of reason" in the crisis.