The company says a review found Altman “was not consistently candid in his communications with the board”. He will be replaced as chief executive in the interim by Mira Murati, who is currently chief technology officer for the artificial intelligence company.
The chief executive of OpenAI – the firm behind viral chatbot ChatGPT – has been ousted after the board said it no longer has confidence in him.
Sam Altman is to depart and will be replaced in the interim by Mira Murati, who is currently chief technology officer for the artificial intelligence company.
In a statement on Friday, OpenAI said the move follows a “deliberative review process by the board” which concluded that Altman “was not consistently candid in his communications with the board”.
The statement said Altman’s behaviour was hindering the board’s ability to exercise its responsibilities.
Posting on social media following the announcement, Altman wrote: “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. (I) will have more to say about what’s next later.”
Altman helped start OpenAI as a non-profit research laboratory in 2015.
But in the past year, he was thrust into the global spotlight as the face of OpenAI after ChatGPT exploded into public consciousness.