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(14/14) Some board members told us that ongoing questions about the integrity of the report could prompt, as one put it, "a need for another investigation." Much more in the full story: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?New interviews and closely guarded documents shed light on the persistent doubts about the head of OpenAI.www.newyorker.com

(13/14) The absence of a written report can make it harder for directors to demonstrate they met their fiduciary duties. If OpenAI IPOs, shareholders could invoke corporate law in Delaware, where OpenAI is incorporated, to demand underlying records.

(12/14) Given OpenAI’s 501(c)(3) status at the time and the high-profile nature of the firing, many executives there expected there would be a written report. An "oral-only" report can actually create legal exposure.

(11/14) Corporate investigations generally aim to confer legitimacy. At private companies, their findings are sometimes not written down—this can be a way to limit liability. But in cases involving public scandals there’s often a greater expectation of transparency.

(10/14) So what was found, and kept kept out of writing, on the question of trustworthiness that had motivated the firing? One person close to the inquiry said: "The review did not conclude that Sam was a George Washington cherry tree of integrity."

(9/14) Instead, findings were limited to oral briefings, which were shared with Summers and Taylor, the two new board members Altman had helped to pick. The decision to keep things out of writing was made in part on the advice of Summers’s and Taylor’s personal attorneys.

(8/14) When OpenAI announced that Altman would be returning to the company board, it released only some 800 words acknowledging a "breakdown in trust"—and no report detailing what it had found. People involved said no report was even written.

(7/14) One emailed Summers and Taylor to complain. "They were just interested in the narrow range of what happened during the board drama, and not the history of his integrity," the employee recalled of his interview with investigators.

(6/14) "Everything pointed to the fact that they wanted to find the outcome, which is to acquit him," an OpenAI employee said. Some employees said that investigators didn't initially contact important figures at the company.

(5/14) Summers and Taylor brought in WilmerHale, the law firm behind the Enron and WorldCom investigations. But six people close to the inquiry alleged that it seemed designed to limit transparency.

(4/14) But the two new board members who controlled the review—Larry Summers and Bret Taylor—were selected in close consultation with Altman. He texted Satya Nadella: "bret, larry summers, adam as the board and me as ceo and then bret handles the investigation."

(3/14) When Altman sought the removal of board members who had fired him over an alleged pattern of deception and manipulation, they made an independent third party investigation a condition of their exit. Altman initially resisted any inquiry, but eventually acceded to a review.

(2/14) One new disclosure in our @NewYorker investigation: there was no written report, and findings were kept deliberately out of writing. Full story here: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202... And a thread below.

Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?New interviews and closely guarded documents shed light on the persistent doubts about the head of OpenAI.www.newyorker.com

As always, if you have a tip on this subject, I'm at ronan_farrow@newyorker.com.

The Post’s slogan is "Democracy Dies in Darkness." That isn't a metaphor: there is more darkness now.

Research shows that when communities switch from local to national news, it measurably increases partisan voting. This is part of what's polarizing America. When newspapers close, we only see partisan labels. Split-ticket voting drops nearly 2%. www.carnegie.org/our-work/art...

Does Local News Reduce Polarization? | Carnegie Reporter Summer 2024 | Carnegie Corporation of New YorkMore than half of American counties are without access or have very limited access to local news. Political scientist and Andrew Carnegie Fellow Joshua P. Darr has been studying what the loss of local...www.carnegie.org

When a local paper closes, residents switch to national news—which is trending away from costly general reporting, while cheaper opinion-driven (and often partisan) content booms. reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/journalism-m...

Separate research on California mayoral races found that when newsrooms shrink, elections grow less competitive: fewer candidates run, margins widen, and more incumbents go unopposed. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class researchSubscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.journals.sagepub.com

The death of newspapers harms democratic participation. Research on the closure of the Cincinnati Post found that voter turnout fell—and stayed down years later—after the paper shut its doors. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Do Newspapers Matter? Short-Run and Long-Run Evidence From the Closure of The Cincinnati PostThe Cincinnati Post published its last edition on New Year's Eve 2007, leaving the Cincinnati Enquirer as the only daily newspaper in the market. The next year, fewer candidates ran...www.tandfonline.com