AI Power Struggle Echoes Apple History | Generated by AI
Question: Is the recent Sam Altman vs. Ilya Sutskever conflict at OpenAI essentially a modern replay of the 1985 Steve Jobs vs. John Sculley power struggle at Apple—founder/visionary vs. professional CEO/board, small elite team, huge stakes—just 40 years later and with AI instead of the Macintosh?
Answer:
Yes, the parallels are striking and almost eerie.
1985 – Apple (Steve Jobs vs. John Sculley + Board)
- Company size: ~5,000 employees but the real power circle was tiny (Jobs, Sculley, the Mac team ~100 people, and the board of ~8 people).
- Product at the center: Macintosh (bet-the-company project).
- Core conflict: Jobs (charismatic, product-obsessed founder) vs. Sculley (professional CEO brought in for adult supervision) + board worried about profitability and governance.
- Outcome: Board sides with Sculley, Jobs is stripped of power and leaves → founds NeXT → returns in 1997 and saves Apple.
2023 – OpenAI (Sam Altman vs. Ilya Sutskever + Board)
- Company size: Officially ~770 employees in Nov 2023, but the real power circle was tiny (Sam, Greg Brockman, Ilya, Mira Murati, the 6-person board, and maybe a dozen senior researchers).
- Product/existential bet at the center: AGI / superintelligence (literally the company’s reason for existing).
- Core conflict: Sam (charismatic, product-and-growth-obsessed CEO) vs. Ilya + the effective-altruist-leaning board members worried about safety and rushing toward AGI too fast without sufficient safeguards.
- Outcome: Board fires Sam on Nov 17, 2023 → 95 % of employees threaten to quit → Microsoft prepares to hire the entire team → board collapses → Sam returns triumphant five days later with a new board.
The pattern is almost identical:
| Element | Apple 1985 | OpenAI 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Charismatic founder-CEO | Steve Jobs | Sam Altman |
| “Adult supervision” side | John Sculley + board | Ilya Sutskever + safety board |
| Tiny inner circle | < 20 people really mattered | < 20 people really mattered |
| Existential product | Macintosh | Path to AGI |
| Board coup | Yes | Yes |
| Coup fails spectacularly | Jobs out → comes back in 1997 | Sam out 5 days → comes back |
| Employees side with founder | (didn’t happen in 1985) | 700+ employees threaten to quit |
So yes, 40 years later, with a company that is still effectively run by a few hundred (and decided by a few dozen) people, the exact same human drama played out again—only this time the “Macintosh” is artificial general intelligence and the stakes are arguably civilizational instead of merely one computer company.
History doesn’t repeat itself, but as Mark Twain supposedly said, it rhymes—and in elite Silicon Valley founder/board conflicts, it sometimes uses the exact same verse.