The GPTOnline editorial cover describes the November 2023 dismissal. Its headline has been corrected to distinguish that board decision from a voluntary resignation; it is not a current leadership announcement.
A startling shift in the tech industry’s landscape was observed when Sam Altman, the renowned CEO behind the AI-driven ChatGPT product and GPT-4 model, was unexpectedly dismissed from his position by OpenAI’s board of directors.
The Microsoft-supported AI startup, OpenAI, announced on Friday, November 17, 2023, that the board had made a decision for this “leadership transition” due to a lack of faith in Altman’s capacity to guide the company.
In its November 17 announcement, OpenAI attributed the decision to the board’s conclusion that Altman had not been consistently candid in communications with it, which the board said impeded its responsibilities.
The board thanked Altman for his contributions and said it believed new leadership was needed. The announcement gave that general rationale but did not detail the communications at issue.
At that point in the transition, Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati was appointed interim CEO while the board searched for a permanent successor. This describes the November 17 announcement, not the company’s current leadership.
Altman, who represented the company at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco earlier this week, briefly commented about his exit on X (previously Twitter). He expressed his affection for working with such a skilled team and noted that leading the company had been personally transformative.
The unexpected news stirred reactions throughout the tech world. The original report described former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as publicly praising Altman on X; the wording is not repeated here as a newly verified direct quotation.
Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and co-founder, was initially described in the announcement as stepping down from the board chair while remaining at the company. The original report then described his subsequent resignation. These were separate developments, rather than a single statement by the board.
Altman gained widespread recognition following the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, which both fascinated and alarmed the public with its ability to deliver extensive, human-like responses to user inquiries, albeit not always accurate. The tech entrepreneur was likened to J Robert Oppenheimer, famously known as the father of the atomic bomb, in a profile by New York Magazine. Time Magazine also recognized him as one of the 100 most influential figures in AI in 2023.
Later development: OpenAI’s March 8, 2024 review summary records the November 21 decision to rehire Altman and Brockman. It attributed the dispute to a breakdown in trust with the prior board. This follow-up does not change the date or contemporaneous focus of the original November 18, 2023 report.
