OpenAI CEO Sam Altman fired over lack of candor with board of directors

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) —Sam Altman, the public face and CEO of OpenAI, the maker of popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, has been fired, the company announced Friday. The decision was made after the company’s board of directors determined that Altman had not been truthful in his communications to the board.

“Mr. 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,” the company said in a blog post announcing the firing. “The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”

OpenAI’s board of directors consists of OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, independent directors Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, technology entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, and Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology’s Helen Toner, according to the blog post.

Altman co-founded OpenAI and served as a co-chair of the company with Elon Musk. Musk departed the company in 2018 to avoid a conflict of interest with Tesla, but has since founded his own AI company, xAI.

“I loved my time at OpenAI,” Altman said in a post on X. formerly Twitter. “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.”

OpenAI declined to comment on the firing beyond the blog post, leaving it a mystery as to what specifically Altman had failed to be candid about with the board of directors.

The firing is sudden. Altman spoke at Thursday’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO summit in San Francisco. 

Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will step in as the interim CEO, effective immediately, according to OpenAI’s blog post. Murati has been with the company for five years, and the company expects a “seamless transition” as she steps into the role while the company searches for a permanent CEO.

“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,” the blog post read.

Microsoft, which has invested billions of dollars into OpenAI, said in a statement that its partnership with the company will continue.

“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,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement.

As part of the transition, Greg Brockman will step down as OpenAI’s chairman of the board but will remain with the company, reporting directly to Murati.

OpenAI, headquartered in San Francisco, was founded as a non-profit in 2015. In 2019 the company restructured and shed its non-profit status. The company became the face of AI technology with the release of ChatGPT in November 2022.

ChatGPT quickly became immensely popular, and has an estimated 100 million monthly users. The chatbot uses artificial intelligence to generate human-like responses to questions and prompts. 

The chatbot has been criticized by some educators, who claim that it can complete students’ homework for them. Others have criticized it for its ability to generate fake news and disinformation, and even impersonate people.

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