Up next
Who is Abbie Herbert?
- OpenAI board fired co-founder Sam Altman as CEO in shock move Friday
- Company says ‘he was not consistently candid’ with the board
- Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will serve as interim CEO
<!–
<!–
<!–<!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
The board of ChatGPT maker OpenAI has fired CEO Sam Altman in a shock move, issuing a statement saying that he had not been ‘consistently candid’.
The company announced the shock move on Friday, saying that Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will serve as interim CEO and that it will conduct a formal search for a permanent boss.
‘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 statement said.
‘The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI, the company added.
The company added that OpenAI President Greg Brockman will be stepping down as chairman of the board, but will remain in his role at the company, reporting to Murati.
ChatGPT maker OpenAI said on Friday Sam Altman will step down as the company’s chief executive officer
The announcement blindsided many employees who discovered the abrupt management shuffle from an internal announcement and the company’s public facing blog.
‘We are grateful for Sam’s many contributions to the founding and growth of OpenAI. At the same time, we believe new leadership is necessary as we move forward,’ the board said in a statement.
Read Related Also: Nick Kyrgios starts his tennis TV commentary career off with a joke that BOMBS as he reveals where he’s at with his long-running injury battle
The majority of the board is independent, and the independent directors do not hold equity in OpenAI.
The remaining board consists of OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, and the independent directors: Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, technology entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, and Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology’s Helen Toner.
Backed by billions of dollars from Microsoft, OpenAI kicked off the generative AI craze last November by releasing its ChatGPT chatbot, which became one of the world’s fastest-growing applications.
Trained on reams of data, generative AI can create brand-new humanlike content, helping users spin up term papers, complete science homework and even write entire novels.
Altman, who ran Y Combinator, is a serial entrepreneur and investor, was the face of OpenAI and the wildly popular generative AI technology that can churn out human-like responses to queries as he toured the world this year.
Altman did not return requests for comment. OpenAI was not reachable for further comment.
‘Microsoft remains committed to Mira and their team as we bring this next era of AI to our customers,’ a spokesperson for the software maker told Reuters on Friday.
While the impact of the change at OpenAI was not immediately clear, current fundraising prospects could be challenged.
‘In the short term it will impair OpenAI’s ability to raise more capital. In the intermediate term it will be a non-issue,’ Thomas Hayes, chairman at hedge fund Great Hill Capital, said.
Developing story, more to follow.
