OpenAI reportedly discussed merging with Anthropic after firing Ultraman.

The latest court documents reveal that shortly after Sam Altman briefly stepped down as CEO of OpenAI two years ago, the company had discussed the possibility of merging with their AI competitor, Anthropic. OpenAI co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever detailed these negotiations in a recent deposition, stating that the company had discussed Anthropic's merger proposal in November 2023. Sutskever mentioned that the proposal would have allowed Anthropic to take over leadership of OpenAI, and he was almost the only one on the board who opposed the deal. However, due to some "practical barriers," the merger discussions ultimately fell through.