Sam Altman has been removed as CEO of OpenAI Inc, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit that acts as the governing body of OpenAI (a startup behind ChatGPT, DALL-E 3, GPT-4, and other highly capable AI systems). He will leave both its board of directors as well as step down as CEO.
OpenAI’s board issued a statement saying Altman’s departure “follows a deliberative review process that determined he was not consistently candid with our board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.”
“The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI,”
Mr. Altman posted Friday on Twitter now known as X: “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.”
Mr. Altman helped launch OpenAI as a nonprofit research laboratory in 2015.The rise into public consciousness through ChatGPT made him famous as an example of generative AI – a technology capable of producing novel imagery, text passages, and other media – such as ChatGPT. While on tour this year he was met by hundreds of fans at an event in London who mobbed him with admiration.
He predicted AI will prove to be “the greatest leap forward of any of the big technological revolutions we’ve had so far.” He acknowledged the need for safeguards against possible existential dangers posed by future AI systems.
Some computer scientists have criticized AI as an overly abstract threat that detracts from real-world limitations and harms of current AI products. The US Federal Trade Commission recently launched an investigation to see whether OpenAI violated consumer protection laws by scraping public data to publish false information through its chatbot.
Microsoft, OpenAI’s key partner and investor in terms of financial investment and providing computing power to run its AI systems, stated that this change won’t hinder their relationship.
“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,” said an emailed Microsoft statement.