OpenAI's board ousted CEO Sam Altman: we lost confidence in him
Altman was removed from his position because "he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board", the statement said. The company's CTO Mira Moratti will serve as interim CEO until a permanent CEO is found
ChatGPT maker OpenAI said on Friday that Sam Altman will depart as the company's chief executive officer after the board found he was "not consistently candid in his communications". OpenAI's Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will serve as interim CEO, the company said, adding that it will conduct a formal search for a permanent CEO.
"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," according to OpenAI. The company will begin the search for a permanent CEO, and regarding Moratti, who has been working at the company for about five years, the statement said that they have great confidence in her ability to lead OpenAI during this transition period.
Altman has been with the company since its first day in 2015 and has been the face of the company all these years. During his tenure, the company launched some of the world's most famous generative AI products, including ChatGPT last year. Today, ChatGPT has about 100 million monthly users, and it serves approximately 80% of all Fortune 500 companies. In the past year, Microsoft deepened its partnership with the company and invested 10 billion dollars.
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. Shares of Microsoft, which has a stake in OpenAI, were down 1.91%.
Altman was not immediately available for comment, while Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
