After Deliberative Analysis: the Ouster of Sam Altman from OpenAI Yesterday, at noon Friday, 17 November 2023, one of the most surprising announcements in the tech world was posted on the blog pages of OpenAI . The announcement's headline closed with, "Sam Altman departs the company". In practical terms his ouster wasn't too much different than a Twitter or Square employee. He turned up to a video meeting and "was immediately fired" according to board chair and OpenAI founder and president Greg Brockman. Those words fell like a meteorite on the tech world. Reuters had a four-reporter story up before 10p. The New York times followed immediately . The Atlantic had a story up by the morning . YouTube AI reporter Matt Wolfe was up even sooner with the news. By the morning in California, France's digital minister opened the door to ex-patriatism. To say this was a stunning announcement is an understatement. I'm not going to recap who Sam Altman i...