Sutskever Deposition Reveals Memos Alleging Altman Manipulation

04 Nov 2025

Former OpenAI co‑founder Ilya Sutskever gave a 10‑hour deposition in Elon Musk’s lawsuit that has surfaced fresh details about the November 2023 board drama that briefly ousted Sam Altman. According to the deposition, Sutskever compiled a 52‑page memo alleging patterns of dishonesty and manipulation by Altman; the reporting says ex‑CTO Mira Murati “provided most” of the evidence. The materials include a so‑called “Brockman Memo” referencing OAI President Greg Brockman’s conduct.

The testimony also describes discussions of a possible merger with Anthropic during the crisis, with Dario Amodei reportedly proposed to lead a combined entity. The memos claim Altman “pitted” Murati against Daniela Amodei (Dario Amodei’s sister), who had worked at OpenAI before joining Anthropic. These revelations come amid litigation over OpenAI’s restructuring and add new color to a weekend that many in the industry have treated as a turning point, with key players now leading rival frontier AI labs.

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