Concerns about Leadership: There were internal concerns at OpenAI about Sam Altman's leadership, focusing on his alleged disregard for ethical considerations and priorities set by the organization.
Issues with Company Direction: Employees raised red flags about Sam pushing the company towards fast growth and fame, potentially compromising safety, quality, and ethical standards.
Board Intervention: The OpenAI board's decision to remove Sam as CEO was driven by a need to realign the company with its original mission and values, emphasizing ethics and responsible AI development.
Optimism for Future Direction: Despite the challenges, there's a sense of optimism about the future of OpenAI under new leadership, with a focus on returning to an engineering-driven mission and prioritizing safety and ethics in AI development.
Maximize what revenue? This was the non-profit board that oversees the 501c3 part of the somewhat complex organization. They don’t have any equity in the business components of the organization.
So theoretically the non-profit board had a disagreement with Sam's desire to push for higher profits in the for-profit subsidiary. Hence, the disagreement over how to maximise revenue.