CEO Altman Ousted By OpenAI, New Leadership Announced

In a surprising and unexpected move, the Board of Directors of OpenAI has fired CEO Sam Altman. Altman said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, “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. Will have more to say about what’s next later.” The 38-year-old CEO’s departure has sent shockwaves through the technology industry.

On the OpenAI website, the company described the parting of ways like this: “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 board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”

According to reports from The Verge, “this is an extremely sudden turn of events.” Just last week, Altman was onstage at the company’s first-ever DevDay conference, in San Francisco. He announced new updates to ChatGPT, but offered no hints as to today’s news. On Thursday, he spoke at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in San Francisco where he argued that AI will be “the greatest leap forward of any of the big technological revolutions we’ve had so far”, according to The Guardian.

Altman is one of the co-founders of OpenAI, along with Greg Brockman. Brockman will be stepping down as Chairman of the Board, to take on an undisclosed role at the company. Other famous-name investors like Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn co-founder) and Peter Thiel (Paypay) were part of the company’s origin story. Other investors in the company included Elon Musk, who later left the organization to avoid a conflict of interest.

Barron’s reports that Open AI is valued somewhere near $80-90 billion. Revenues are anticipated to reach $1 billion this year. The company charges companies and individuals for access to advanced features, as a primary source of revenues. Companies that wish to use Open AI’s technology, as an underpinning or OEM model for other technologies, are also sources of substantial revenues for the company. A new report from Forbes says that ChatGPT dominates online AI usage, with a 60% market share.

According to reports from The Guardian, Mira Murati will assume duties as interim CEO. Murati has been with OpenAI for five years, and currently serves as CTO. “We have the utmost confidence in her ability to lead OpenAI during this transition period,” the Board said, in a statement on the company website.