Sam Altman was one of many tech leaders to sign a sharply worded statement on Tuesday warning of a “risk of extinction” from advanced AI if its development is not properly managed.
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Sam Altman back at OpenAI: The craziest five days in Silicon Valley history | The DeanBeat

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 3 min

OpenAI has rotated through four CEOs in five days. I think that qualifies as the craziest five days in Silicon Valley history. Now fired CEO Sam Altman is back as the CEO of OpenAI again.

When the OpenAI board first fired Sam Altman as its CEO on the Friday before Thanksgiving, it might have thought the news would be quiet. It is, after all, one of the quietest news days of the business year. It named CTO Mira Murati as its new interim CEO.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.