Hanlon's razor[0] applies. There is no reason to assume malice, nor shamelessness, nor anything negative about Ilya. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Consider:

Ilya sees two options; A) OpenAI with Sam's vision, which is increasingly detached from the goals stated in the OpenAI charter, or B) OpenAI without Sam, which would return to the goals of the charter. He chooses option B, and takes action to bring this about.

He gets his way. The Board drops Sam. Contrary to Ilya's expectations, OpenAI employees revolt. He realizes that his ideal end-state (OpenAI as it was, sans Sam) is apparently not a real option. At this point, the real options are A) OpenAI with Sam (i.e. the status quo ante), or B) a gutted OpenAI with greatly diminished leadership, IC talent, and reputation. He chooses option A.

[0]Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.

Hanlon's razor is enormously over-applied. You're supposed to apply Hanlon's razor to the person processing your info while you're in line at the DMV. You're not supposed to apply Hanlon's razor to anyone who has any real modicum of power, because, at scale, incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.

The difference between the two is that incompetence is often fixable through education/information while malice is not. That is why it is best to first assume incompetence.

This is an extremely uncharitable take based on pure speculation.

>Ilya cares nothing about humanity or security of OpenAI, he lost his mind when Sam got all the spotlights and making all the good calls.

???

I personally suspect Ilya tried to do the best for OpenAI and humanity he could but it backfired/they underestimated Altman, and now is doing the best he can to minimize the damage.

Or they simply found themselves in a tough decision without superhuman predictive powers and did the best they could to navigate it.

I did not make this up, it's from OpenAI's own employees, deleted but archived somewhere that I read.

Link?

I think he orchestrated the coup on principle, but severely underestimated the backlash and power that other people had collectively.

Now he’s trying to save his own skin. Sam will probably take him back on his own technical merits but definitely not in any position of power anymore

When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die

Just because you are a genius in one domain does not mean you are in another

What’s funny is that everyone initially “accepted” the firing. But no one liked it. Then a few people (like greg) started voting with their feet which empowered others which has cumulated into this tidal shift.

It will make a fascinating case study some day on how not to fire your CEO

greg was also pushed out of the board. It wasn't even a hard decision for him.