OpenAI, the company behind the viral chatbot ChatGPT, fired its CEO and founder, Sam Altman, on Friday. His stunning passing has sent shockwaves through the emerging artificial intelligence industry.
The company, in a statementHe said an internal investigation found that Altman was not always honest with the board.
“Mr. Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process by the Board of Directors, which concluded that he was not consistently honest in his communications with the Board of Directors, which hindered his ability to exercise his responsibilities,” the company said in its statement. “The Board no longer trusts In his ability to continue to lead OpenAI.”
OpenAI announced that Mira Moratti, the company’s chief technology officer, will serve as interim CEO until a permanent successor is chosen.
In a tweet following the news, Altman said he “loved my time at Aubinay.”
It’s been transformative for me personally, and hopefully a bit for the world. Most of all, I loved working with these talented people. “He’ll have more to say about what’s next later.”
This news comes on the heels of the first OpenAI developer conference held in San Francisco last week, where Altman served as master of ceremonies, unveiling a series of new updates to the AI tools, including the ability for developers to create custom versions of ChatGPT. He also noted that about 2 million developers are now using the platform, and about 90% of Fortune 500 companies use the tools internally.. It currently has 100 million active users.
ChatGPT was launched late last year, leading to the creation of Altman Overnight semi-celebrity He directed a new set of artificial intelligence tools that can generate images and text in response to simple user prompts. The technology is called generative AI, and Microsoft has since deployed it on its search engine and other tools. Google has a competitor called “Bard,” and other generative AI tools have been developed in recent months.
Shortly after its release, ChatGPT became a household name almost synonymous with artificial intelligence itself. CEOs have used it to draft emails, people have built websites without any prior programming experience, and it has passed tests from law and business schools.
Although Altman has been a long-time advocate of artificial intelligence, he is also one of its biggest critics. In his testimony before Congress earlier this year, Altman described the current technology boom as a pivotal moment.
“He is [AI] Will it be like the printing press, which spread knowledge, power, and learning widely across the landscape, which empowered ordinary individuals, which led to greater prosperity, and which led above all to greater freedom? He said. “Or will it be more like the atomic bomb – a huge technological breakthrough, but the (severe, terrible) consequences still haunt us to this day?”
He was also one of many technology CEOs Meets with White House leadersincluding Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden, this year to stress the importance of developing ethical and responsible AI.
Others wanted Altman and OpenAI to move more cautiously. Elon Musk, who helped found OpenAI before parting ways with the group, and dozens of technology leaders, professors and researchers urge AI labs like OpenAI to halt training of their most powerful AI systems for at least six months, citing “deep risks to society and humanity.” (At the same time, some experts questioned whether those who signed the letter were seeking to maintain their competitive edge over other companies.)
OpenAI declined CNN’s request for further comment.
Arun Chandrasekaran, an analyst at Gartner Research, called Altman’s exit “shocking,” because he had been championing the cause of OpenAI with developers, consumers, regulators and others. “I’m sure the OpenAI board made this decision after a lot of deliberation,” he said.
“OpenAI has a great pipeline of technical leaders and it will be interesting to see how it guides the next generation of leaders by continuing its fast-paced culture of innovation, scaling the business and meeting the expectations of regulators and society at large.”
Moratti was born and raised in Albania and studied engineering at Dartmouth. She joined OpenAI in 2018. Previously, she managed the production and engineering teams at augmented reality company Ultraleap (then called Leap Motion) and previously worked at Tesla, where she helped develop the Model
This news shocked AI insiders, analysts and technology executives alike. in tweetFormer Google CEO Eric Schmidt called Altman “my hero.”
“He built a company from nothing to a $90 billion value, and changed our collective world forever,” Schmidt said. “I can’t wait to see what he does next. I and billions of people will benefit from his future work, it will simply be incredible. Thank you [Altman] For everything you have done for all of us.
Rhys Hayden, an analyst at ABI Research, said this could represent a “huge blow” to commentators calling for regulation of AI.
“Sam Altman has been a passionate advocate for this, and this may indicate that OpenAI is leaning toward a more self-regulatory approach,” Hayden said.
CNN’s Claire Duffy contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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