Sam Altman is out at OpenAI as CEO, effective immediately

On Friday, OpenAI’s board of directors said that Sam Altman will step down as CEO and will be replaced by chief technology officer Mira Murati.

Having served on OpenAI’s leadership team for half a decade, Mira has been instrumental in shaping the organization into a leading force in the global AI sphere. Her distinctive blend of skills, deep comprehension of the company’s ethos, internal processes, and commercial activities, coupled with her current leadership over research, product development, and safety protocols, positions her exceptionally well for the role of CEO. Her extensive involvement with various facets of the company, especially her expertise in AI governance and policy, convinces the board of her unparalleled suitability for the position. They expect a smooth transition as she steps in, while they undertake the process of conducting a thorough search for a long-term CEO.

The board said, in an official blog post, that it conducted “a deliberative review process” and “concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.”

“The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI,” the firm said.

The board of directors of OpenAI Inc, which is the 501(c)(3) that governs the high-profile research lab, comprises of the firm’s chief scientist Ilya Sutskever and independent directors like Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, technology entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, and Helen Toner of the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

The OpenAI board also said that the firm’s president Greg Brockman “will be stepping down as chairman of the board and will remain in his role at the company, reporting to the CEO.”

In a statement, the board of directors said: “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. As the leader of the company’s research, product, and safety functions, Mira is exceptionally qualified to step into the role of interim CEO. We have the utmost confidence in her ability to lead OpenAI during this transition period.”

OpenAI, which has raised billions of dollars from Microsoft, jumped into the mainstream late last year after releasing its AI chatbot ChatGPT to the public. The service went viral by allowing users to convert simple text into creative conversation and has pushed big tech companies like Alphabet and Meta to step up their investments in generative AI.

OpenAI launched as a non-profit model in 2015 with backing from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who reportedly committed $1 billion to the project.

Before taking over as CEO, Altman was president of startup accelerator Y-Combinator and gained prominence in Silicon Valley as an early-stage investor. Earlier in his career, he started social networking company Loopt.