Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI and, for many, the face of generative AI, was sacked by the board of the firm that created ChatGPT on Friday, shocking the tech community.
The business announced that Mira Murati, Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI, will take on the role of acting CEO in the interim and that a formal search for a new CEO will be carried out.
OpenAI stated in a blog post without providing further details, “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.”
Greg Brockman, the president and co-founder of OpenAI, announced his resignation from the firm late on Friday on messaging platform X. Brockman also resigned as chairman of the board as part of the management transition.
“I’m quitting based on today’s news,” he wrote.
After learning today’s news, this is the message I sent to the OpenAI team: https://t.co/NMnG16yFmm pic.twitter.com/8x39P0ejOM
— Greg Brockman (@gdb) November 18, 2023
Many employees were taken aback by the departures, as they learned of the sudden change in management only through an internal communication and the company’s publicly accessible blog. Both Brockman and Altman were taken aback by the board’s decision, as Brockman revealed, as they discovered it minutes after it was made public.
He wrote, “We will be fine. We too are still trying to figure out exactly what happened,” on X, the former Twitter platform. Better things are on the horizon.
Sam and I are shocked and saddened by what the board did today.
Let us first say thank you to all the incredible people who we have worked with at OpenAI, our customers, our investors, and all of those who have been reaching out.
We too are still trying to figure out exactly…
— Greg Brockman (@gdb) November 18, 2023
Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s chief scientist, and three independent directors who do not own any stock make up the board of four now. A request for response on Brockman’s assertions was not immediately answered by the organization.
With the help of billions of dollars from Microsoft, which is not represented on the board of the non-profit regulating the firm, OpenAI released ChatGPT in November of last year, sparking the generative AI craze. One of the software applications with the greatest growth rates in the world is the chatbot.
Generative AI, which has been trained on reams of data, can produce content that is human-like, assisting users in writing term papers, finishing science assignments, and even whole novels. Following ChatGPT’s debut, authorities hurried to catch up: the United States began regulating AI, while the European Union updated its AI Act.
Altman is an investor and serial entrepreneur who founded and oversaw Y Combinator. This year, he traveled the globe as the face of OpenAI and the enormously popular generative AI technology.
Shortly after OpenAI launched its blog, Altman wrote on X, saying, “I loved my time at OpenAI.” It changed me personally and, hopefully, the world in some small way. Above all, I enjoyed collaborating with individuals of such skill. I’ll talk more about what comes next eventually.
i loved my time at openai. it was transformative for me personally, and hopefully the world a little bit. most of all i loved working with such talented people.
will have more to say about what’s next later.
🫡
— Sam Altman (@sama) November 17, 2023
Comment inquiries were not answered by Altman.
After leaving Tesla, Murati joined OpenAI in 2018 and rose to the position of chief technical officer. She managed the introduction of several products, including ChatGPT.
In an attempt to reassure staff members during an emergency all-hands meeting on Friday afternoon following the announcement, Murati stated that OpenAI and Microsoft have a stable partnership and that the company’s backers, chief executive Satya Nadella among them, still have faith in the startup, a person with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.
Details of the meeting were previously reported by the Information. A representative for the software company told Reuters on Friday that “Microsoft remains committed to Mira and their team as we bring this next era of AI to our customers.”
Launched in 2015, this is not OpenAI’s first shakeup. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, was previously the company’s co-chair. Other executives left in 2020 to form the rival company Anthropic, which asserts that it places a higher priority on AI safety.
As word of the most recent shuffle spread, supporters and detractors flocked to online discussion boards.
“He built a company from nothing to $90 billion in value, and changed our collective world forever,” said former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, referring to Altman as “a hero of mine” on X. I’m eager to follow his next move. His future effort will benefit me and billions of others; it’s going to be amazing.
Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives stated, “This is a shocker and Altman was a key ingredient in the recipe for success of OpenAI.” Having said that, we think Microsoft and Nadella will have more influence on OpenAI now that Altman is no longer there.
Although the full effect of the OpenAI surprise won’t become apparent for some time, its ability to raise money raised concerns right away. Altman was regarded as a brilliant fundraiser who spearheaded OpenAI’s tender offer activities this year, propelling the company’s valuation from $29 billion to over $80 billion. He also successfully negotiated billions of dollars in investment from Microsoft.
“It will hinder OpenAI’s capacity to raise additional funds in the near future. It will not be a problem in the medium run, according to Thomas Hayes, chairman of hedge firm Great Hill Capital.
While disruptive, some analysts argued Altman’s exit would not undermine Microsoft’s competitive edge, OpenAI, or the appeal of generative AI.
D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria stated, “There is no reason to think this would cause OpenAI to cede its leadership position. The innovation created by OpenAI is bigger than any one or two people.”
“If nothing else, Microsoft’s ownership and keen interest in the advancement of OpenAI guarantee that the right kind of leadership changes are put in place.”
Even on Thursday night, Altman appeared unfazed at two public appearances. He spoke on his commitment to and vision for AI with colleagues in a panel during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco.
Later, he gave a speech on the subject of art and artificial intelligence (AI) at a Burning Man-related event in Oakland, California. The speech lasted for an hour. Altman left immediately after his discussion ended at 7:30 p.m., while appearing at ease and not indicating anything was amiss.
The event organiser said at the event that Altman had another meeting to attend.
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