Loss of trust
He was the face of ChatGPT: OpenAI surprisingly throws out CEO Sam Altman
Sam Altman is co-founder and current CEO of OpenAI and introduced ChatGPT a year ago
© ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP
Hardly anyone represents the AI revolution as much as OpenAI boss Sam Altman. Now he was put out on the street. The expulsion came out of nowhere.
On Thursday he spoke at a conference for the entire industry, on Friday he lost his job: OpenAI has its co-founder and CEO Sam Altman fired. He has to vacate his position as chief executive and his place on the board of directors. The reason: You can no longer trust the 38-year-old.
The company announced the board of directors’ decision in a blog post. Altman’s expulsion was the result of an extensive review process, it says. “We concluded that he was not consistently honest with the council.” In doing so, he hindered the work of the committee. “The Council no longer has confidence in its ability to lead OpenAI.”
Surprising eviction
It is not known what exactly caused the loss of trust. Both the company and Altman are tight-lipped about details. Altman’s position will now be filled by the company’s technical director, Mira Murati. The 34-year-old is considered the brains behind the chatbot ChatGPT and has often appeared on stage with Altman in the past. “Mira is exceptionally qualified to take on the role of interim executive director,” the blog post said. People have the greatest trust in them, emphasizes OpenAI.
Altman was initially reluctant to speak out on the short message service X, long known as Twitter. It says he always enjoyed his time at OpenAI, and plans for his next steps will follow in the near future. A more emotional post followed a little later. “It’s like watching your own eulogy while you’re still alive,” Altman posted. “My most important lesson: tell your friends how great they are.”
Altman initially founded the company as a foundation together with other tech greats such as Elon Musk and is the face of by far the company’s most important product, the voice AI ChatGPT. Although Altman was already considered a big name in the AI scene, he only became world famous with the introduction of the bot a year ago. For the first time, ChatGPT was able to automatically create texts that approach the level of human authors. And in doing so, it brought the transformation through artificial intelligence, which had been simmering in the background for some time, into the light of the world in one fell swoop.