OpenAI’s CEO Heartaches
On Friday, all Big Tech was shaken after ChatGPT creator OpenAI announced a major revision to its chair executive. Sam Altman, who co-founded and served as OpenAI’s CEO since 2019, was ousted by the board of directors in a widely unexpected move. OpenAI’s current board of directors is the company’s governing body for all its activities and is comprised of a few prominent leaders such as cofounder Ilya Sutskever and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo. In the group’s reasoning, they were quoted as stating “The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI”.
What followed the sudden ousting of Altman was an immense backlash. The vague and unpopular exit left Microsoft, one of OpenAI’s largest backers, to lose over $30 billion in market cap. OpenAI’s president, Greg Brockman, also didn’t approve of the change and publicly resigned from his position. On Saturday, several major shareholders of the firm, including Microsoft, pushed for a reversal of the executive change, wanting Altman to return to his position. The following day, OpenAI’s board of directors reportedly met with Altman to discuss his rehiring, with the ex-CEO remaining open to the idea on the condition the board was disbanded. Regardless, the unexpected move left those across Silicon Valley stunned and worried over the state of AI and its leadership. Taking other executives and employees by surprise, it is still left in the air whether Altman will choose to return as the company’s chief executive or if the board’s tough decision will sink in across the tech industry.
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