After ChatGPT-maker OpenAI fired Sam Altman, the co-founder and President Greg Brockman announced that he is departing from the maker of generative artificial intelligence tools.
The company pushed out Altman after a review found he was “not consistently candid in his communications” with the board of directors. “The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI,” it added. It added that Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief technology officer, will take over as interim CEO effective immediately.
Announcing on X (formerly Twitter), Brockman wrote, “I’m super proud of what we’ve all built together since starting in my apartment 8 years ago.”
“We’ve been through tough & great times together, accomplishing so much despite all the reasons it should have been impossible. But based on today’s news, I quit,” he said.
He further said, “Genuinely wishing you all nothing but the best. I continue to believe in the mission of creating safe (artificial general intelligence) that benefits all of humanity.”
In another tweet, he said that both he and Sam were shocked and saddened by the news, further adding that they were informed about the removal over a Google Meet call. In the post, he wrote, “Sam and I are shocked and saddened by what the board did today. Let us first say thank you to all the incredible people who we have worked with at OpenAI, our customers, our investors, and all of those who have been reaching out.”
Further explaining, he added. “We too are still trying to figure out exactly what happened. Here is what we know: Last night, Sam got a text from Ilya asking to talk at noon Friday. Sam joined a Google Meet and the whole board, except Greg, was there. Ilya told Sam he was being fired and that the news was going out very soon. At 12:19pm, Greg got a text from Ilya asking for a quick call. At 12:23pm, Ilya sent a Google Meet link. Greg was told that he was being removed from the board (but was vital to the company and would retain his role) and that Sam had been fired. Around the same time, OpenAI published a blog post. As far as we know, the management team was made aware of this shortly after, other than Mira who found out the night prior.”
He also thanked all for the support but added that, “please don’t spend any time being concerned. We will be fine. Greater things coming soon”
Following the release of ChatGPT, the tech behemoths Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta joined the race in artificial intelligence (AI), which is being heralded as the next great thing in technology. Microsoft has poured billions of dollars into OpenAI and integrated the technology into many of its products, such as the Bing search engine. Altman has testified before US Congress about AI and spoken with heads of state about the technology, as pressure ramps up to regulate against risks such as AI’s potential use in bioweapons, misinformation and other threats.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives took to X and said that OpenAI’s momentum is unlikely to be slowed by Altman’s firing. “Altman out as CEO of OpenAI is a shocker but ultimately Microsoft will just have more control of the situation. We see little concern going forward with him gone,” Ives said in a post.
Originally established as a nonprofit in 2015, OpenAI aimed to prevent advanced AI from falling into the hands of monopolistic corporations. However, after receiving a significant investment from Microsoft in 2019, the company transitioned to a for-profit structure.
Earlier in May, the company also initiated a hiring spree, attracting executives from Meta, Apple, and Amazon Web Services. The Washington Post reported. Earlier this month, the company also announced its most powerful language model yet – GPT 4 Turbo – at its first developer conference in San Francisco. The company said GPTthe -4 Turbo is more powerful and updated than the previous GPT-4 version, which was announced in March this year.
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