‘Sam and I are shocked and saddened’: Greg Brockman on Sam Altman’s sacking from OpenAI

NEW DELHI: Late on Friday, the board of the company overseeing ChatGPT ousted Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, a move that reverberated through the tech industry. Altman, widely regarded as the human face of generative AI, was abruptly removed from his position.
OpenAI announced that Mira Murati, the chief technology officer, will take on the role of interim CEO. The company also disclosed plans to initiate a formal search for a permanent CEO.

The sudden change in leadership caught many employees off guard, as they learned of the management reshuffle through an internal announcement and the company’s public blog.
Altman posted on X shortly after OpenAI published its blog: “i loved my time at openai.it was transformative for me personally, and hopefully the world a little bit. most of all i loved working with such talented people. will have more to say about what’s next later.”

Greg Brockman, OpenAI president and co-founder, who stepped down from the board as chairman as part of the management shuffle, quit the company, he announced on messaging platform X late on Friday. “Based on today’s news, i quit,” he wrote. “Genuinely wishing you all nothing but the best,” he said.

In another post, Brockman said that Sam and he were shocked by the OpenAI board did.

Here is full text of Brockman’s post:
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.
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.
The outpouring of support has been really nice; thank you, but please don’t spend any time being concerned. We will be fine. Greater things coming soon.
(With inputs from agencies)