Company CEO behind ChatGPT dismissed: "The board no longer trusts him"

The OpenAI board, the organization behind ChatGPT, dismissed CEO Sam Altman last Friday, according to Reuters. Many individuals saw Altman as the human face of artificial intelligence.

"Following a meticulous review process, the board concluded that Altman's inconsistent honesty in his communication hindered his ability to carry out his duties," OpenAI stated in an ambiguous blog post, without elaborating on the issue.

The board no longer has faith in his capability to lead OpenAI effectively - it further stated.

As of now, Mira Murati, the technology director at OpenAI, will step in as the CEO. However, the organization stated that it is on the hunt for a permanent replacement. Greg Brockman, the chairman and co-founder of OpenAI, has also left the company.

The resignation of the top management came as a surprise to many employees, who learned about it from the company's public blog and internal messages. "The announcement was also an unexpected shock for Altman and Brockman, who were informed about the board's decision a few minutes before the announcement," Reuters reported.

"We're also in the process of figuring out exactly what transpired," Brockman posted on platform X (formerly Twitter), adding, "Everything will be fine. Expect bigger things to come soon."

OpenAI's board currently consists of three independent directors with no company stakes and Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever. Reuters recalls that ChatGPT, launched in November last year, "ignited a flurry of generative artificial intelligence" and "emerged as one of the fastest-growing applications worldwide."

Neither Altman nor OpenAI responded to Reuters' request for comment. However, Altman later acknowledged the situation on platform X. "I truly enjoyed my time at OpenAI. It was a period of personal transformation for me, and hopefully, for the world too. Above all, I relished working with such talented individuals. More on what's next will be announced soon," he posted.

As per unconfirmed findings by Reuters, at an abruptly called meeting last Friday afternoon, Murati tried to reassure the staff. She also affirmed that OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft, its strategic sponsor, remains robust, and Satya Nadella (Microsoft’s CEO) continues to express confidence in the startup.

The conflict within OpenAI's board might be due to issues cooperating with Microsoft, which invested $10 billion to continue developing ChatGPT and artificial intelligence. In an interview, Altman revealed that he had requested additional funding from the Redmond giant to work on the new GPT-5 model.

Other potential causes for the dispute between OpenAI management and Altman might be in place. Although OpenAI is focused on profit and developing more advanced versions of GPT, Altman was vocal about the dangers and risks related to artificial intelligence, especially without government regulation.

Altman reportedly tried to persuade Microsoft against integrating ChatGPT with its search engine, Bing. He was concerned that the GPT-4 technology was not quite ready, and the chatbot was acting unpredictably.