(Washington) Sam Altman, star of Silicon Valley, was dismissed, with immediate effect, from his position as boss of OpenAI, which launched the generative artificial intelligence platform ChatGPT a year ago, the board of administration accusing him of not having always been “frank” with him.
“Mr. Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he had not always been candid in his communications with the board, hindering his ability to fulfill his responsibilities.” , explains a press release, emphasizing that this body no longer has “confidence in its ability to lead OpenAI”.
Mira Murati, technical director of OpenAI, has been appointed to act as interim head of the company while waiting for the ongoing process to find a permanent successor to be successful. She has worked there for five years.
“OpenAI was intentionally structured to advance our mission: to ensure that artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. The board remains fully committed to serving this mission,” he said.
“We are grateful for Sam’s many contributions to the creation and growth of OpenAI. At the same time, we believe that new governance is necessary to move forward,” he continued.
Sam Altman, 38, reacted on the X network (formerly Twitter): “I loved my time at OpenAI. It was transformative for me on a personal level, but also, hopefully, for the world.”
In response to Mr. Altman’s dismissal, Chairman Greg Brockman — a co-founder of the company — announced his resignation on earlier.
Founded at the end of 2015, OpenAI was able to count on the financial support of prestigious contributors from the outset, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, investor Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.
The company is financed by Microsoft, which has invested several billion dollars in it and which has integrated this technology into its own products, such as the Bing search engine.
In a statement, the IT giant reacted to the news of the executive’s departure: “We have a long-term partnership with OpenAi and Microsoft remains committed to Mira and the teams as we bring a new era of ‘artificial intelligence to users’.
“Altman fired as boss of OpenAI, a shock, but, ultimately, Microsoft will simply have more control over the situation given its stake” in the company’s capital, the analyst published on X by Wedbush Dan Ives.
He “has been crucial in guiding the platform to where it is, but the fact that he is no longer there creates little concern for the future,” he added. “A year ago it would have been different.”
Since the first version of ChatGPT went live on November 30, 2022, millions of people have used it to write messages, request a cooking recipe or invent a story to tell their children — which the chatbot can then read to them.
The launch of ChatGPT kicked off a race in artificial intelligence, pitting giants like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta against each other.
Widely considered a revolution comparable to the advent of the internet, generative AI makes it possible to produce texts, lines of code, images and sounds upon simple request in everyday language.
Despite their success, ChatGPT and other interfaces of this type also raise serious concerns about the dangers for democracy (massive disinformation) or employment (replaced professions), in particular.
Sam Altman has spoken before the United States Congress and spoken with heads of state about this technology and the fears it raises.
“I have a lot of empathy for how people feel, whatever they feel” about ChatGPT, Sam Altman told AFP on Thursday, on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. (Apec) which is being held this week in San Francisco.