The former chief scientist of OpenAI testified and revealed that Altman was expelled: He was dishonest and had long wanted to fire him.

On May 12, according to Reuters,Ilya Sutskever, former chief scientist of OpenAIHe testified on Monday that he spent about a year gathering evidence for the OpenAI board to prove that CEO Sam Altman"Consistent pattern of lying."

Sutskover

Sutskofer testified Monday in Musk's case against OpenAI. The top AI researcher confirmed that he had been considering taking action to remove Altman as CEO for at least a year before the board of directors voted to remove him as CEO in November 2023.

Sutskofer said,At the request of the OpenAI board of directors, he compiled a document recording evidence of Altman's dishonest behavior, and confirmed that Altman's behavior included "undermining the authority of senior executives and provoking confrontation among senior executives."He also revealed that he discussed the removal of Ultraman for a "long time" with then-chief technology officer Mira Murati. Sutskofer mentioned in his pretrial testimony that the document was 52 pages long.

He testified in a California court that Altman's actions "do not help achieve any ambitious goals," including building a safe general artificial intelligence (AGI).

Sutskofer played a key role in Altman's dramatic firing and reinstatement in November 2023. At the time, as a member of the OpenAI board of directors, he helped plan the removal of Altman, but later expressed regret for his "participation in the board's actions" and voted for Altman's reinstatement. Altman has led the company since and is now a central figure in OpenAI’s legal battle with Musk.

Sutskofer disclosed on Monday that his stake in OpenAI was worth about $5 billion as of November 2025, and has now risen to about $7 billion.

He also confirmed that after Altman was briefly ousted, OpenAI's remaining board members met with rival Anthropic to discuss a proposal for Anthropic to merge with OpenAI and take over its leadership. He said he was "not keen" on merging OpenAI with another company.

Sutskofer said he was offline for much of the weekend after the board voted to fire Altman, so he was initially unaware of Microsoft's contingency plan to absorb Altman, Brockman and other OpenAI employees into a new subsidiary.

He left OpenAI in 2024 and has since founded an AI startup called Safe Superintelligence.