Nov 6 - OpenAI devday, with new features of build-your-own ChatGPT and more
Nov 9 - Microsoft cuts employees off from ChatGPT due to "security concerns" [0]
Nov 9 - OpenAI experiences severe downtime the company attributes to a "DDoS" (not the correct term for 'excess usage') [3]
Nov 15 - OpenAI announce no new ChatGPT plus upgrades [1] but still allow regular signups (and still do)
Nov 17 - OpenAI fire Altman
Put the threads together - one theory: the new release had a serious security issue, leaked a bunch of data, and it wasn't disclosed, but Microsoft knew about it.
This wouldn't be the first time - in March there was an incident where users were seeing the private chats of other users [2]
Further extending theory - prioritizing getting to market overrode security/privacy testing, and this most recent release caused something much, much larger.
Further: CTO Mira / others internally concerned about launch etc. but overruled by CEO. Kicks issue up to board, hence their trust in her taking over as interim CEO.
edit: added note on DDoS (thanks kristjansson below) - and despite the downtime it was only upgrades to ChatGPT Plus with the new features that were disabled. Note on why CTO would take over.
[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/09/microsoft-restricts-employee...
[1] https://twitter.com/sama/status/1724626002595471740
[2] https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/21/23649806/chatgpt-chat-his...
[3] https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/09/openai-blames-ddos-attack-...
"Second, because the board is still the board of a Nonprofit, each director must perform their fiduciary duties in furtherance of its mission—safe AGI that is broadly beneficial. While the for-profit subsidiary is permitted to make and distribute profit, it is subject to this mission. The Nonprofit’s principal beneficiary is humanity, not OpenAI investors."
So, if I were to speculate, it was because they were at odds over profit/non-profit nature of the future of OpenAI.