Sam Altman, the Face of AI, Is Fired in Bombshell Move

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, was fired by the company he helped make a leading force in the artificial intelligence industry in a mysterious and surprise move on Friday.

“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. “The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”

The board provided no details of Altman’s alleged lack of candor and declined to answer any follow-up questions about the bombshell shakeup.

Altman did not immediately return a call from The Daily Beast, but in a post to X on Friday afternoon, he acknowledged his ouster, writing, “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.” He ended the post with a “saluting” emoji.

OpenAI’s board appointed Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati to serve as interim CEO. Co-founder and president Greg Brockman will step down as chairman of the board but remain president of the company, the statement said.

The news reportedly shocked employees at OpenAI, who first heard about the news when it was announced publicly, according to The Verge.

Microsoft, a major investor in the company, told the outlet it would continue to work with OpenAI and remains “committed to Mira and their team as we bring this next era of AI to our customers.” But the tech giant was reportedly “blindsided” by the news and found out just before it was announced.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sought to downplay the situation in a post on X, writing, “We have a long-term agreement with OpenAI with full access to everything we need to deliver on our innovation agenda and an exciting product roadmap; and remain committed to our partnership.”

According to tech outlet The Information, OpenAI’s chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, tried to reassure employees during an all-hands meeting on Friday, telling them that the tumult would ultimately “make us feel closer.”

Altman came to OpenAI after serving as president of the prominent startup incubator Y-Combinator and after launching his own start-up, Loopt. The AI company soared to prominence with the debut of ChatGPT, a hugely popular AI chatbot. The company’s most recent product, ChatGPT Plus, was so popular it had to pause signups earlier this month.

Along with his role as CEO of OpenAI, Altman, 38, served as a sort of public face for the artificial intelligence industry. On what New York magazine dubbed a “world tour” this spring, Altman met with the heads of state of France, Spain, India, South Korea, Germany, and the U.K. He also testified before the U.S. Congress on the potential risks and benefits of AI technology and attended dinner at the White House.

Just a day before his firing, Altman appeared on OpenAI’s behalf at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in San Francisco, where he further evangelized AI.

“I think this will be the most transformative and beneficial technology yet invented,” he said, adding that new technology like ChatGPT is “like the ‘Star Trek’ computer I was always promised.”

Though it started as a nonprofit, launched with major donations from Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel and others in 2015, OpenAI shifted to a for-profit model in 2019 to attract venture funding. The move frustrated donors like Musk, who tweeted earlier this year, “I’m still confused as to how a non-profit to which I donated ~$100M somehow became a $30B market cap for-profit. If this is legal, why doesn’t everyone do it?”

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who is building his own AI initiative, called Altman a “hero” in a tweet Friday.

“He built a company from nothing to $90 Billion in value, and changed our collective world forever,” he wrote. “I can’t wait to see what he does next. I, and billions of people, will benefit from his future work- it’s going to be simply incredible.”