In an unexpected turn of events that has surprised followers of the global evolution of artificial intelligence, Sam Altman has been fired from his role as CEO of OpenAI, Inc., the nonprofit organization behind OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company known for its developments such as ChatGPT, DALL-E 3, and GPT-4. This decision includes his departure from the company’s board of directors.
According to a statement on OpenAI’s official blog, the board of directors concluded that Altman did not maintain transparent and consistent communication, which affected the board’s ability to fulfill its responsibilities. “The board no longer has confidence in [Altman’s] ability to continue leading OpenAI,” the publication reads.
David Carrero Fernández-Baillo, co-founder of Stackscale, commented on this unexpected change: “News that has caught us all by surprise, those of us who follow movements in the world of Artificial Intelligence and especially OpenAI. It is a decisive moment that could mark a before and after in the company’s trajectory.”
Meanwhile, Greg Brockman, another co-founder of OpenAI, will step down from his position as board chairman but will remain as the company’s president, reporting to Mira Murati, who will assume the role of interim CEO. Murati, formerly CTO of OpenAI, will be responsible for guiding the organization during this transition period.
This change comes at a crucial time for OpenAI, which has just held its first OpenAI DevDay and is facing significant costs associated with training artificial intelligence models. OpenAI’s board of directors, which now includes figures such as Ilya Sutskever, Adam D’Angelo, and Helen Toner, has begun the search for a new permanent CEO.
Altman, who previously led Y Combinator and has a seat on the board of Worldcoin, was a key figure in the founding of OpenAI, working alongside Elon Musk, who left the board in 2018 to avoid conflicts of interest with Tesla.
The tech community and followers of OpenAI eagerly await the company’s next moves, while Microsoft, one of OpenAI’s largest investors, has reaffirmed its commitment to Murati and her team to bring the era of AI to its customers.