(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
UPDATE 11/20: It was an eventful weekend for Altman, OpenAI, and Microsoft. News broke over the weekend that OpenAI's board was talking to Altman (and Brockman) about returning to the company. Altman even tweeted a photo of himself wearing an OpenAI visitor's badge on Sunday afternoon. By early Monday morning, however, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella tweeted that Redmond had instead hired Altman and Brockman to head up a new AI institute.
The news isn't sitting well with OpenAI employees. More than 500 of them published an open letter this morning demanding that Altman return as CEO and the resignation of the board or they'll defect to Microsoft, too.
UPDATE: Sam Altman has published a tweet about his departure. He didn't elaborate on why he was forced to step down, but he signaled he already has a new project in the works.
"Will have more to say about what’s next later," he wrote.
OpenAI's President and co-founder Greg Brockman has also quit the company following Altman's departure. OpenAI says Brockman has stepped down as chairman of the board.
Original story:
In a surprising move, OpenAI has fired CEO Sam Altman, apparently for withholding information.
The company this afternoon announced that Altman has stepped down as chief executive, despite his massive success in leading OpenAI to develop ChatGPT, the AI program that has taken the world by storm in the last year.
“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 company said. “The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”
The San Francisco-based company has yet to elaborate. But the loss of Altman — a company co-founder— may be a huge blow for OpenAI since he was also the face of the company at a time when governments are looking at regulating generative AI. This month, Altman led OpenAI’s first developer conference, and he was in attendance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in San Francisco this week.
OpenAI CTO Mira Murati will act as interim CEO, effective immediately, while a search process for a permanent chief executive begins. “A member of OpenAI’s leadership team for five years, Mira has played a critical role in OpenAI’s evolution into a global AI leader,” the company said.
OpenAI adds that Altman is also leaving the company’s six-member board. “OpenAI was deliberately structured to advance our mission: to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity. The board remains fully committed to serving this mission. 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.”
Part of that growth includes billion-dollar investments from Microsoft. On Twitter this afternoon, Microsoft, CEO Satya Nadella wrote: “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.”