ChatGPT maker OpenAI FIRES boss Sam Altman for not being ‘consistently candid’ with the board

ChatGPT maker OpenAI has fired co-founder Sam Altman as CEO. He issued a statement saying he had not been “consistently forthcoming” with the company’s board.

The company announced the move Friday, saying Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will serve as interim CEO and that it will begin a formal search for a permanent boss.

The announcement blindsided many employees who discovered the abrupt management change through an internal announcement and the company’s public blog.

“Altman’s departure follows a thoughtful review process by the board, which revealed that he was not consistently forthcoming in his communications with the board, which hampered the board’s ability to discharge its responsibilities,” the statement said.

“The board no longer has confidence in its ability to continue to lead OpenAI,” the company added.

OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati (in October) will serve as interim CEO

The company added that OpenAI president Greg Brockman will step down as chairman of the board, but will remain in his role at the company, reporting to Murati.

“We are grateful for Sam’s many contributions to the founding and growth of OpenAI. At the same time, we believe that new leadership is necessary if we want to move forward,” the board said in a statement.

The majority of the board is independent and the independent directors do not own shares in OpenAI.

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

Backed by billions of dollars from Microsoft, OpenAI kicked off the generative AI craze last November by releasing the ChatGPT chatbot, which became one of the world’s fastest-growing applications.

Trained with massive amounts of data, generative AI can create brand new human-like content, allowing users to dream up term papers, do science homework, and even write entire novels.

OpenAI president Greg Brockman (above) will step down as chairman of the board, but will remain in his role at the company, reporting to Murati

Mira Murati was Altman’s top lieutenant and will replace him as interim CEO. The two are seen together above earlier this month

Altman, who led Y Combinator and is a serial entrepreneur and investor, was the face of OpenAI and the wildly popular generative AI technology that can deliver human-like answers to questions while traveling the world this year.

Altman did not return requests for comment. OpenAI could not be reached for further comment.

“Microsoft remains committed to Mira and their team as we bring this next era of AI to our customers,” a spokesperson for the software maker told Reuters on Friday.

While the impact of the change at OpenAI was not immediately clear, its current fundraising prospects could be tested.

“In the short term, it will hurt OpenAI’s ability to raise more capital. In the medium term it won’t be a problem,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman of hedge fund Great Hill Capital.

Story in development, more to come.