Then things went unexpectedly well, people were valuing them at billions of dollars, and they suddenly decided they weren't open any more. Suddenly they were all about Altman's Interests Safety (AI Safety for short).

The board tried to fulfil its obligation to get the nonprofit to do the things in its charter, and they were unsuccessful.

But they found themselves alone in that it turns out the employees (who were employed by the for-profit company) and investors (MSFT in particular) didn't care about the mission and wanted to follow the money instead.

So the board had no choice but to capitulate and leave.