Sam Altman has been fired as CEO of OpenAI, the company announced on Friday citing the lack of confidence in his ability to lead the company
“Mr. 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,” the company said in its blog post.
“The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”
Chief technology officer Mira Murati will be the interim CEO, effective immediately as the company searches for a permanent CEO successor.
“I loved my time at OpenAI,” Altman said in a post on X formerly known as Twitte after his ouster.
“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.”
This change in events is really abrupt. Altman has served as the public face of OpenAI, the company that released ChatGPT last year, sparking the current AI arms race. At the company’s inaugural DevDay conference only last week, Altman delivered the keynote address and the company unveiled a number of significant new releases aimed at taking on rival large tech firms like Microsoft and Google.
In the beginning, Altman and Elon Musk co-chaired OpenAI, where they are co-founders. In order to prevent a conflict of interest with Tesla, Musk departed in 2018. Since then, he established xAI, his own AI startup.
In addition, OpenAI disclosed that co-founder Greg Brockman will continue to work for the company but will relinquish his position as chairman of the board.
