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Washington: OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPIT a year ago, said on Friday it has fired CEO Sam Altman. In a statement, the company said, “the board lost confidence in his ability to lead”. The company further added that, Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief technology officer, will take over as interim CEO effective immediately.
Altman, 38, who previously led Y Combinator, is a serial entrepreneur and investor. Altman became a tech world sensation with the release of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot with unprecedented capabilities, generating human-level content like poems or artwork in a matter of seconds. He served as the public face of OpenAI, showcasing the immensely popular generative AI technology capable of generating human-like responses to queries during his global tour this year.
OpenAI’s board said in a statement,“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 board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI,” it added.
This comes in the wake of mounting deepfake cases in India, where several Bollywood actresses, including Rashmika Mandanna, Katrina Kaif, and Kajol, fell prey to this. Altman’s decision last year to release the app paid off in ways he never imagined, catapulting the Missouri-born Stanford dropout to household name stardom.
The launch of ChatGPT ignited an AI race, with contenders including tech giants Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta. Sam Altman expressed his love for his time at he spent at OpenAI and the transformative impact it had on him personally and the world. Moreover, he also mentioned his admiration for the talented people he worked with.
“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.” Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and has woven the company’s technology into its offerings, including search engine Bing.
Altman has testified before US Congress about AI and spoken with heads of state about the technology, as pressure ramps up to regulate against risks such as AI’s potential use in bioweapons, misinformation and other threats. The statement said the board was “grateful for Sam’s many contributions to the founding and growth of OpenAI. At the same time, we believe new leadership is necessary as we move forward.”
Altman would be replaced on an interim basis by Mira Murati, the company’s chief technology officer, the statement said. After Sam’s exit, Satya Nadella reaffirms Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI and their commitment to delivering the benefits of AI technology.
