Sam Altman fired by OpenAI’s board over lack of communication, talks reportedly ongoing to bring him back.
Generative AI’s poster boy and the face of the wildly popular, instant success ChatGPT has been fired from his own company, OpenAI. Altman was fired on November 17 by the board of OpenAI. Currently, CTO Mira Murati is serving as interim CEO. The event was abrupt and unexpected, not just for the world, but even for the company’s employees.
The reason cited by the board that oversees OpenAI was as below:
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 board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.
This was published in a blog post titled “OpenAI announces leadership transition.”
Based on this, OpenAI’s president and another co-founder Greg Brockman also stepped down.
People have been speculating over the weekend. There are multiple theories but little official information. Notably, Altman delivered the keynote at OpenAI’s first-ever developer conference. Bloomberg reported (link—paywalled) that the Microsoft CEO was blindsided and furious at this.
Over the weekend, Bloomberg also received intelligence that he might be making a return. The Verge also confirmed this, quoting multiple sources close to the matter. Apparently, Microsoft, one of OpenAI’s biggest backers, among other investors, is putting pressure on the board to do so.
This was followed shortly after another tweet by Altman:
According to Forbes, “With the ousted OpenAI CEO actively discussing a new artificial intelligence venture, investors in his previous company are trying to bring him back using Microsoft and key employees as leverage.”
