Silicon Valley titan Sam Altman has been dismissed with immediate effect as head of OpenAI - the firm that launched the generative AI platform ChatGPT a year ago - after the company's board accused him of not always being truthful with it.
Altman’s firing “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 in a statement. “The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”
Mira Murati, OpenAI's chief technology officer, will serve as interim CEO until a permanent successor is appointed, the board said. She has been with the company for five years.
Since last year’s launch of ChatGPT, OpenAI has been facing intense competition from large tech firms such as Alphabet, Google’s parent company, that are also working on Artificial Intelligence.
In a response on social network X, Altman (38) tweeted: “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.”
As part of the reshuffle, board chairman Greg Brockman — a company co-founder— leaves his post but remains a staff member.
Founded in late 2015, OpenAI has been consistently backed financially by prominent contributors, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, investor Peter Thiel, as well as Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Microsoft, which funds the company, having poured billions into it and incorporated the technology into its own products, such as Bing search engine, issued a statement following the announcement of the reshuffle.
“We have a long-term partnership with OpenAI, and Microsoft remains committed to Mira and their team as we bring this next era of AI to our customers,” it said.
ChatGPT, launched on 30 November 2022, is used by millions of people the world over for a host of operations, from writing messages to requesting cooking recipes or inventing stories for their children.
ChatGPT’s launch sparked an AI race, pitting giants such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta against each other.
Widely seen as a revolution akin to the advent of the Internet, generative AI produces text, code, images and sounds in response to a simple request in common language.
Despite their success, ChatGPT and similar interfaces also raise strong concerns about potential threats to democracy (mass misinformation) or employment (profession replacement).
Altman has spoken before the US Congress and discussed the technology and the fears it raises with world leaders.
