Shortly after ChatGPT's parent company announced that CEO Sam Altman had been fired in an abrupt move, Greg Brockman, a key player in the AI revolution, declared his resignation as president and co-founder of OpenAI on Saturday.
According to Brockman's social media post shared on X, “I’m super proud of what we’ve all built together since starting in my apartment 8 years ago.” He added, “We’ve been through tough & great times together, accomplishing so much despite all the reasons it should have been impossible. But based on today’s news, I quit.”
“Genuinely wishing you all nothing but the best,” Brockman said in his post. “I continue to believe in the mission of creating safe (artificial general intelligence) that benefits all of humanity.” Brockman was supposed to leave his position as board chairman as part of a previously announced plan, but he would continue to work for the company and report to the new CEO.
Why did OpenAI fire Sam Altman?
After a review revealed that Sam Altman was "not consistently candid in his communications" with the board of directors, OpenAI announced that he has been fired. According to a statement from the artificial intelligence startup, "the board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI."
Since making ChatGPT famous worldwide a year ago, Altman has established himself as Silicon Valley's go-to expert on the benefits and drawbacks of artificial intelligence. However, the abrupt and largely unexplained termination of his company raised questions about the future of the sector.
Concerning Altman's alleged lack of transparency, OpenAI declined to respond to inquiries. According to the statement, his actions were impeding the board's capacity to carry out its duties. Altman wrote on X: “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.”
In 2015, Altman assisted in establishing OpenAI as a nonprofit research facility. However, Altman's rise to prominence as the face of generative AI—a technology capable of creating original text, images, and other media—was largely due to ChatGPT's viral rise to fame.
Despite lacking formal training in AI engineering, Altman, now 38, has been hailed as a Silicon Valley rising star since his early 20s. In 2014, YCombinator hired him to take over as its new CEO. The acting chief executive officer of OpenAI will be Mira Murati, chief technology officer.
