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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been ousted from his company by the board of directors.
“Mr. Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI,” the company said in a statement.
Altman was also kicked off the board of directors.
Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati was appointed interim CEO to lead OpenAI.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), which reportedly owns a 49% stake in the generative AI company, dropped more than 2% on the announcement.
In January, Microsoft (MSFT) announced that it had made a “multibillion” dollar investment into OpenAI.
The stunning news of Altman’s departure follows OpenAI’s first ever developer conference, where Altman gave the keynote address. During it, he said the company said it has 2M developers building products, more than 100M weekly active users and it is working with 92% of the Fortune 500.
Earlier this week, Altman said that OpenAI was interested in raising more money, perhaps from Microsoft.