Sam Altman ousted from OpenAI, CTO Mira Murati named interim CEO

ChatGPT developer OpenAI has removed founder Sam Altman from his CEO position, according to a Nov. 17 blog post. Chief technology officer Mira Murati will be promoted to interim CEO. According to the post, the board of directors engaged in a “deliberative review process,” which resulted in the conclusion that Altman “was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.”

Altman could not immediately be reached for comment.

OpenAI announces leadership transition https://t.co/fFYDLwGXQz

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) November 17, 2023

OpenAI’s board said it remains committed to building artificial intelligence (AI) applications going forward:

“OpenAI was deliberately structured to advance our mission: to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity. The board remains fully committed to serving this mission. […] Mira is exceptionally qualified to step into the role of interim CEO. We have the utmost confidence in her ability to lead OpenAI during this transition period.”

Related: OpenAI halts new ChatGPT Plus sign-ups amid high demand

The board also stated that it is “grateful for Sam’s many contributions to the founding and growth of OpenAI” but claimed that “new leadership is necessary as we move forward.” The board’s chairman, Greg Brockman, will also be stepping down from his position. However, he will remain as an employee, “reporting to the CEO,” according to the post.

The board of directors consists of Adam D’Angelo, Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner and OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. According to the post, the majority of board members are “independent directors” who do not hold equity in OpenAI.

The named interim CEO, Mira Murati, is an engineer with Albanian roots and a Dartmouth education, recognized for her contributions to key OpenAI products as Chief Technology Officer, and will assume the interim role of Chief Executive Officer for OpenAI. Ms. Murati has a background spanning aerospace, automotive, VR, and AR, and held a senior product manager role at Tesla, contributing to the Model X. She also worked with Leap Motion, integrating AI into real-world applications. She joined OpenAI in 2018.

Altman is also the founder of Tools for Humanity, and the developer of crypto project Worldcoin. Cointelegraph reached out to Tools for Humanity for comment but did not get a response by the time of publication.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.