OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, surprises its CEO, Sam Altman

After a deliberative review process, “the board is no longer confident in its ability to continue leading OpenAI,” say OpenAI directors. The successor in the position is Mira Murati, who previously served as the company’s chief technology officer, and who as of tonight is interim CEO.

OpenAI thus closes a stage in which Altman, 38, has become one of the most prominent executives in the technology industry over the last year. “We have the utmost confidence in his ability to lead OpenAI during this transition period,” highlights the board of directors on the company’s official website.

After OpenAI’s decision was made public, Altman himself reacted to the news on the social network X, formerly Twitter. «I loved my time at the company. It was transformative for me personally, and I hope a little for the world. Above all, I loved working with such talented people.

Sam Altman’s departure is not the only change that occurs tonight. Along with the CEO, current chairman Greg Brockman, who also helped Altman found Open AI, is also leaving his position on the board. Although, in this case, he will remain in his position in the company.

The technology of the moment

With barely a year of life, the anniversary falls on November 30, ChatGPT’s generative artificial intelligence has become the technology of the moment. The chatbot attracted hundreds of millions of users and captivated people with the way it answered questions, wrote poetry, and discussed almost any topic presented to it.

A meteoric emergence that has aroused the interest and investment appetite of numerous venture capital firms and also of US technology giants such as Microsoft with an investment of 10,000 million euros to incorporate this technology into its search engine and confront Google.

The firm was founded in 2015, originally only as a non-profit organization, with Sam Altman and Elon Musk as co-presidents. Now, beheaded, the firm already has a valuation close to 30,000 million euros (about 27,500 million euros). However, in recent weeks the company was in talks to close a new round of financing that would value the company at more than $80 billion (about €73.3 billion).

Now, OpenAI loses its most charismatic face that has dazzled investors and, also, the political sphere. In the last year, this 38-year-old has become the spokesperson for the technology industry’s shift towards AI, testifying before Congress and dazzling legislators and regulators around the world.

Following the departure of Brockman and Altman, the OpenAI board consists of OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever; independent advisors Adam D’Angelo, head of Quora, and Tasha McCauley, and Helen Toner, of the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology.