Sam Altman is no longer CEO of OpenAI. Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief technology officer, has been named interim CEO, the company announced.
Update, Nov. 20: See the latest developments in With OpenAI in chaos, Sam Altman joins Microsoft
Why was Altman ousted? Altman was not consistently candid in his communications with the OpenAI’s board of directors, “hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI,” according to OpenAI’s statement.
What’s next? OpenAI will begin its search for its next permanent CEO, the company said.
Why we care. Search marketers were shocked to learn of Altman being forced out of OpenAI, the company behind the extremely popular generative AI tool ChatGPT, which launched less than a year ago on Nov. 30, 2022. It has changed the way we work and the direction of search. This will be a story to watch over the next few weeks.
State of ChatGPT. It has 100 million active users – including about 90% of Fortune 500 companies. ChatGPT Plus sign-ups were paused Nov. 14 due to surge in demand, according to Altman. That followed a series of ChatGPT outages due to DDoS attacks.
Reaction. Here are some of the early reactions from the industry:
What OpenAI is saying. Here’s the full statement:
