The company issued a statement on its official website indicating that the decision to dismiss Mr. Altman came after a consultative meeting of the company’s board of directors, which concluded his lack of honesty and consistency in communicating with the board hindered his ability to fulfill his responsibilities, leading the board to lose confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.
Following Altman’s dismissal, Mira Moratti, the company’s chief technology officer, will assume the role of interim CEO, and the company is expected to seek a permanent replacement for the position.
The company declined to comment or disclose any additional details to the media.
Tech site “The Verge” reported, citing its sources, that employees within the company were surprised by the CEO’s dismissal and were unaware of it until the press release issued by the board.
The decision to part ways with Sam Altman was considered sudden, as he had been the public face of the company since the beginning of the artificial intelligence revolution that started late last year with the release of the company’s flagship product “ChatGPT.”
During the past week, Altman delivered the keynote speech at OpenAI’s first developers’ conference, where he announced the new features the company plans to launch for its customers in the near future. The company also represented at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference.
Altman, one of the co-founders of OpenAI, mentioned that he had collaborated with other investors like Elon Musk, who led the company for a period and left after several years. Additionally, Altman is a key contributor to the activities of “Human,” a company specializing in developing AI-based products.
OpenAI also announced that the company would part ways with Greg Brockman, the co-founder serving as the board chairman, but he will remain a member of the company.
In an official statement, Microsoft, one of the major contributors to the company, stated that they would continue to collaborate with the new CEO and his team continuously, affirming their ongoing long-term partnership with OpenAI.
