Sam Altman steps down as CEO of OpenAI

Sam Altman is stepping down as CEO of OpenAI, the company announced Friday.

The departure follows a review process undertaken by the company’s board of directors, said OpenAI, the creator of the popular chat bot ChatGPT.

“Mr. Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process conducted by the Board of Directors, which concluded that he had not always been candid in his communications with the Board of Directors, which hindered its ability to carry out its responsibilities,” OpenAI said in a statement. “The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue to lead OpenAI.”

The company’s chief technology officer, Mira Murati, will take on the role of interim CEO, OpenAI said.

“I loved my time at openai. It was transformative for me personally and hopefully for the world a bit. Above all, I loved working with such talented people,” Altman said in a statement on X, adding that he “will have more to say later.”

After Altman’s departure, OpenAI President and Co-Founder Greg Brockman announcement that he resigned “based on today’s news.”

“I sincerely wish you nothing but the best,” Brockman said in a message to the OpenAI team shared on X. “I continue to believe in the mission of creating a safe AGI that benefits all of humanity.”

Founded as a nonprofit organization in 2015, OpenAI has grown in prominence since ChatGPT was made available to the public a year ago. The chatbot now has more than 100 million weekly users, Altman announced earlier this month.

In the meantime, the company has grown considerably. As of October, OpenAI was expected to generate more than $1 billion in revenue over a one-year period from the sale of its artificial intelligence products, The Information reported.

In January, Microsoft announced that it was investing $10 billion in OpenAI. The move deepened a long-standing relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI, which began with a billion-dollar investment four years ago. Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, provides users with access to ChatGPT.

Speaking to ABC News’ Rebecca Jarvis in March, Altman said AI has the ability to profoundly improve people’s lives, but it also poses serious risks.

“We have to be careful here,” Altman said. “I think people should be happy that we’re a little bit afraid of this.”

In May, Altman testified before Congress with a similarly sober message about AI products, including the latest version of ChatGPT called GPT-4. He called on lawmakers to impose regulations on AI.

“GPT-4 is more likely to respond helpfully and honestly, and deny harmful requests, than any other widely deployed model with similar capabilities,” Altman said.

“However, we believe that regulatory intervention by governments will be essential to mitigate the risks associated with increasingly powerful models,” he added, suggesting the adoption of licensing or security requirements necessary for how AI models work.