Sam Altman fired as CEO of OpenAI

Sam Altman has been ousted from his position as CEO of OpenAI, according to an announcement made by the company on Friday.

Sam Altman, a co-founder of OpenAI, had initially served as co-chair alongside Elon Musk, who departed in 2018 to avoid conflicts of interest with Tesla. Altman has been associated with discussions about creating the "iPhone of artificial intelligence" with Jony Ive, Apple's former chief design officer. Additionally, Altman is the largest shareholder in Humane, a company recently launching orders for its Humane AI Pin.

The decision to remove Mr. Altman stemmed from a comprehensive review conducted by the board, revealing concerns about his lack of consistent openness in communications with the board. This deficiency was deemed to impede the board's effective execution of its responsibilities, leading to a loss of confidence in Altman's ability to continue steering OpenAI. As a result, Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will assume the role of interim CEO immediately, while the company initiates a search for a permanent successor as mentionned in this official press conference of OpenAI.

In a blog post, OpenAI stated that employees were informed of Altman's departure when the news was publicly announced, with the communications department declining further comment. Another post by Brockman on X mentioned that both he and Altman were notified of their removal from the board by OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever.

This development is particularly abrupt given Altman's prominent role as the face of OpenAI, notably following the success of ChatGPT's release last year. Altman recently led the keynote at the company’s inaugural DevDay conference, unveiling significant updates to compete with major tech players like Microsoft and Google. Despite the sudden change, Microsoft, a substantial investor in OpenAI, expressed its commitment to the partnership.

In response to his dismissal, Altman reflected on his time at OpenAI, describing it as transformative, yet expressed a sense of reading his own eulogy while still alive. Co-founder and president Greg Brockman will step down as the chairman of the board but remain with the company, though he later announced his resignation based on the day's events.