In a surprising turn of events, Sam Altman was fired on Friday from his role as CEO of OpenAI. The shocking decision was announced following a “deliberative review process by the board,” which found that Altman was not “consistently candid” in his dealings with other board members. In a blog post published by the Open AI board, this lack of transparency was deemed to hinder the board’s ability to effectively fulfill its responsibilities.
On Twitter, Altman expressed his love for his time at OpenAI and hinted at future plans. Alongside Altman’s departure, Greg Brockman, a co-founder of OpenAI, initially stepped down as chairman of the board, also announced he would leave the company completely hours later. Mira Murati, who was previously the CTO of Open AI, is now interim CEO.
Altman’s removal was unexpected, especially given his recent active role in shaping regulatory responses to AI and his involvement in high-profile events and discussions related to AI policy. Altman have very much been the public face of Open AI. Over the last year he oversaw the explosive growth of transformative AI products like ChatGPT and Dall-E.
The specific reasons for his departure are unclear. Bloomberg and The Information reported Altman’s ousting is related to internal disagreements about AI safety and speed of development. According to The Verge, Open AI chief scientist and co-founder Ilya Sutskever was “instrumental” in the move to push Altman out.
Altman will remain a major figure in the world of AI one way or the other. We wouldn’t be surprised to see him announce a new company soon.
