Every good story has its conclusion, and the business world is no exception. In a recent blog post, OpenAI’s board of directors officially announced the departure of CEO and co-founder Sam Altman, attributing the decision to concerns about his communication transparency.
The board, after a thorough review process, expressed dissatisfaction with Altman’s lack of consistent candor in communications, deeming it an obstacle to the board’s effective discharge of responsibilities. Consequently, the board lost confidence in Altman’s capacity to lead OpenAI.
The specific events leading to Altman’s departure remain shrouded in mystery. Merely a day before the announcement, Altman was actively discussing the anticipated arrival of GPT-5.
Founded in 2015 by Altman along with support from influential tech figures like Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, Pamela Vagata, Ilya Sutskever, Trevor Blackwell, Vicki Cheung, Andrej Karpathy, Durk Kingma, John Schulman, and Wojciech Zaremba, OpenAI has become a prominent force in artificial intelligence research and implementation. The organization’s overarching goal is to ensure that the progress of artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits humanity as a whole.
Stepping into Altman’s shoes is Mira Murati, the current Chief Technology Officer at OpenAI, who will assume the role of interim CEO with immediate effect. Murati, having been an integral part of the company for five years and consistently holding leadership positions, is deemed uniquely qualified for the interim role. The board anticipates a smooth transition while simultaneously initiating a formal search for a permanent CEO.
The announcement also included news of Greg Brockman stepping down from his position as the chairman of the board. Instead, he will concentrate on his responsibilities within the company, reporting directly to the CEO. However, in a surprising turn of events, Brockman announced his resignation over an X message on Saturday, citing Altman’s termination as the primary reason. Subsequently, three senior AI researchers have also tendered their resignations.
As more details emerge, this narrative will be updated to provide a comprehensive account of the unfolding events.
