Nov 17 (Reuters) – The board of the company behind ChatGPT fired OpenAI CEO Sam Altman – the human face of generative AI to many – late on Friday, sending shockwaves across the tech industry. Gave.
OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will serve as interim CEO, the company announced, adding that it will conduct a search for a permanent permanent CEO.
The announcement blindsided many employees, who learned of the sudden change in management from internal announcements and the company’s public blog.
“Mr. Altman’s resignation follows a deliberative process by the Board of Directors, which concluded that Mr. Altman has not been consistently candid in his communications with the Board, which is interfering with his ability to fulfill his Board responsibilities. ” OpenAI wrote in its blog without going into details.
With billions of dollars in backing from Microsoft (MSFT.O), OpenAI last November released its ChatGPT chatbot, which has become one of the world’s fastest-growing software applications, sparking the generative AI boom. caused a stir.
Generative AI trained on massive amounts of data can create entirely new human-like content that helps users write term papers, complete science homework, or write entire novels. Masu. After ChatGPT launched, regulators scrambled to catch up. The European Union has amended its AI laws without definition, and the United States has begun efforts to regulate AI.
Altman, who ran Y Combinator, is a serial entrepreneur and investor. Touring the world this year, he was the face of OpenAI and the wildly popular generative AI technology.
altman Posted in X Shortly after OpenAI published their blog, they wrote, “I loved my time at OpenAI. It was a little bit transformative for me personally and, hopefully, for the world. Most of all, I loved working with such talented people. I loved working. I’ll tell you more about what’s next later.” ”
Altman did not respond to requests for comment. OpenAI could not be reached for further comment.
Murati previously worked at Tesla, but joined OpenAI in 2018 and later became the company’s chief technology officer. She oversaw product launches including her ChatGPT.
At an emergency all-hands meeting held Friday afternoon after the announcement, Murati sought to calm employees, saying the partnership between OpenAI and Microsoft is stable and backers’ executives, including CEO Satya Nadella, said: The company continues to express confidence in the company, the person said. This was told to Reuters.
The Information previously reported details of the meeting.
“Microsoft remains committed to Mira and her team as we deliver this next era of AI to our customers,” a spokesperson for the software maker told Reuters on Friday.
In a statement posted on Microsoft’s website, Nadella added: “We have a long-term agreement with OpenAI…Together, we will continue to deliver the meaningful benefits of this technology to the world.”
earthquake
As the news spread, well-wishers and critics took to digital forums.
Regarding X, previously Google CEO Eric Schmidt Calling Altman “my hero,” he said, “He built a company worth $90 billion from the ground up and changed our collective world forever, and I can’t wait to see what he does next.” So will I and billions of other people.” Benefit from his future work. It’s going to be really incredible. ”
“This is shocking and Altman was a key component of OpenAI’s success,” said Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. “That said, we believe that with Altman gone, Microsoft and Nadella will exert more control over OpenAI going forward.”
The full impact of OpenAI’s surprise will become clear over time, but its funding prospects were an immediate concern. Altman is considered a fundraising guru who successfully negotiated a multibillion-dollar investment from Microsoft, and also led the company’s takeover deal this year, taking OpenAI’s valuation from $29 billion to more than $80 billion. Pushed up.
“In the short term it will hurt Open AI’s ability to raise further capital, but in the medium term it won’t matter,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman of hedge fund Great Hill Capital.
Other analysts said Altman’s departure, while disruptive, would not shake up the popularity of generative AI, OpenAI or Microsoft’s competitive advantage.
“OpenAI’s innovation is bigger than one or two people,” said Gil Luria, an analyst at DA Davidson. “There’s no reason to think this will cede leadership to OpenAI.” “At the very least, his Microsoft investment and significant interest in the advancement of OpenAI will ensure that appropriate leadership changes are made.”
As of Thursday evening, Altman showed no signs of concern at two public events. He joined his colleagues in a panel discussion on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in San Francisco, where he explained his approach and vision for AI.
He then spoke at a Burning Man-related event in Oakland, California, and had an hour-long conversation about art and AI. Mr. Altman seemed relaxed and didn’t seem to have any problems, but he left shortly after his talk ended at 7:30 p.m.
Event organizers said at the event that Altman had plans to attend another meeting.
Samrita Arunasalam reports in Bangalore, Jeffrey Dustin and Anna Tong in San Francisco, and Crystal Hu in New York. Editing: Shounak Dasgupta, Kenneth Li, Richard Chang
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.