Alexander Lewis
Nov 18, 2023
Open AI CEO Sam Altman, the human face of generative artificial intelligence (AI), was fired by the company board behind ChatGPT after a “deliberative review process”.
The announcement — which came out as a shock for the stakeholder holders of the tech industry — was made by OpenAI through a blog post.
"Altman's departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities," OpenAI said in the blog without elaborating.
The company further stated that OpenAI's Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will serve as interim CEO and the firm will conduct a formal search for a permanent CEO.
After the development, OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman — who stepped down from the board as chairman of the management shuffle — quit the company.
He announced his decision on messaging platform X. "Based on today's news, [I] quit," he wrote.
The departures blindsided many employees who discovered the abrupt management change from an internal message and the company's public-facing blog. It came as a surprise to Altman and Brockman as well, who learned the board's decision within minutes of the announcement, Brockman said.
"We too are still trying to figure out exactly what happened," he posted on X, formerly Twitter, adding, "We will be fine. Greater things [are] coming soon."
The new four-person board consists of its Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever and three independent directors holding no equity in OpenAI.
Backed by billions of dollars from Microsoft (MSFT.O), which does not have a board seat in the non-profit governing the startup, OpenAI kicked off the generative AI craze last November by releasing ChatGPT. The chatbot became one of the world's fastest-growing software applications.
Altman, who ran Y Combinator, is a serial entrepreneur and investor. He was the face of OpenAI and the wildly popular generative AI technology as he toured the world this year.
Trained on reams of data, generative AI can create human-like content, helping users spin up term papers, complete science homework and even write entire novels. After ChatGPT's launch, regulators scrambled to catch up: the European Union revised its AI Act and the US kicked off AI regulation efforts.
Shortly after OpenAI published the blog, Altman posted a note on X which read: "[I] loved my time at openai. it was transformative for me personally, and hopefully the world a little bit. most of all [I] loved working with such talented people. will have more to say about what’s next later."
Who is the new CEO?
Murati, who has worked for Tesla, joined OpenAI in 2018 and later became chief technology officer. She oversaw product launches including that of ChatGPT.
At an emergency all-hands meeting on Friday afternoon after the announcement, Murati sought to calm employees and said OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft is stable and its backer's executives, including CEO Satya Nadella, continue to express confidence in the startup, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
