OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Fired By Board, Chairman Greg Brockman Resigns
The OpenAI board has ousted CEO Sam Altman in a surprising turn of events. The abrupt decision, revealed late on Friday, sent shock waves throughout the tech industry. Altman, known as the human face of generative AI, has been a key figure in the success of OpenAI.
The company's Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati has been announced as the interim CEO as OpenAI initiates a formal search for a permanent replacement.
This shift in leadership occurs just days after OpenAI's highly successful inaugural DevDay 2023, an event that witnessed an unprecedented surge in ChatGPT Plus signups. The overwhelming response was so remarkable that the company found it necessary to temporarily suspend these signups.
Justifying Altman's ouster, OpenAI in a statement said, "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 board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI."
Interestingly, this development also aligns almost precisely with the one-year anniversary of the public launch of the AI chatbot ChatGPT, a milestone that thrust OpenAI into the forefront of the technology landscape, helping it to become one of the fastest-growing companies in recent history.
The unexpected management shuffle was reportedly a blindsiding revelation for many employees as well, who learned about it through an internal announcement and the company's public blog.
Meanwhile, Greg Brockman, OpenAI's president and co-founder, resigned from the board as chairman, announced his departure from the company on the messaging platform X. He said, "Based on today's news, I quit."
Altman, a serial entrepreneur and investor, has been a prominent figure in the tech world, touring globally as the face of OpenAI and its immensely popular generative AI technology. His departure raises immediate concerns about OpenAI's fundraising prospects, as Altman was credited with negotiating billions in investments, particularly from major backer Microsoft.
According to a The Information report, in a companywide meeting on Friday, OpenAI Interim CEO Mira Murati reassured staff that the organisation's partnership with Microsoft, its primary external provider of capital and computing resources, remains intact despite the abrupt dismissal of CEO Sam Altman.
In a statement, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella affirmed the company’s long-term agreement with OpenAI and its commitment to delivering the benefits of AI technology to the world.
"[..] We have a long-term agreement with OpenAI with full access to everything we need to deliver on our innovation agenda and an exciting product roadmap; and remain committed to our partnership, and to Mira and the team. Together, we will continue to deliver the meaningful benefits of this technology to the world," Nadella wrote in a post on X, addressing the matter.
OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Ilya Sutskever, Greg Brockman, Trevor Blackwell, Vicki Cheung, Andrej Karpathy, Durk Kingma, Jessica Livingston, John Schulman, Pamela Vagata and Wojciech Zaremba, with Sam Altman and Elon Musk serving as the initial board members
Currently, OpenAI’s board of directors consists of OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, independent directors Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, technology entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, and Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology’s Helen Toner.
The majority of the board is independent and the independent directors do not hold equity in OpenAI, the company said in a statement.
Also Read: Mira Murati Appointed As OpenAI’s Interim CEO After Sam Altman Ouster
