OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Has Been Ousted, CTO Mira Murati Has Been Named Interim CEO

Altman was fired by the board of directors due to what they described as his "not consistently candid in his communications with the board."

As per a blog post published on November 17, ChatGPT developer OpenAI has removed Sam Altman from his CEO role. Mira Murati, the chief technology officer, is going to be elevated to acting CEO. Altman "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities," the post claims, after the board of directors undertook a "deliberative review process."

It took some time to get in touch with Altman for a comment.

The OpenAI board of directors stated that it will continue to develop artificial intelligence (AI) applications:

"OpenAI was developed with one goal in mind: to make sure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity." The board remains entirely committed to completing this task.[…] Mira is uniquely equipped to fill the position of temporary CEO. We have complete faith in her abilities to manage OpenAI during this period of transition."

The board also noted that it is "grateful for Sam's many contributions to the founding and growth of OpenAI" but that "new leadership is required as we move forward." Greg Brockman, the board's chairman, will also step down. He will, however, remain an employee, "reporting to the CEO," according to the statement.

Adam D'Angelo, Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner, and OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever make up the board of directors. The majority of board members, according to the post, are "independent directors" who do not own shares in OpenAI.

Mira Murati, the named interim CEO, is an engineer with Albanian ancestry and a Dartmouth degree who has been acknowledged for her contributions to major OpenAI technologies as Chief Technology Officer and will assume the interim CEO role for OpenAI. Ms. Murati has worked in aerospace, automotive, virtual reality, and augmented reality, and she was a senior product manager at Tesla, where she contributed to the Model X. She also collaborated with Leap Motion, integrating artificial intelligence into real-world applications. In 2018, she joined OpenAI.

Conclusion

The ouster of Sam Altman as OpenAI CEO is a major shake-up for the company. It is unclear what the long-term implications of this decision will be, but it is clear that OpenAI is at a critical juncture in its development. Murati will face a number of challenges in her new role, but she also has a number of opportunities to shape the future of OpenAI.