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| Former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was fired on November 17th, shocking the tech world. (Source: Sam Altman) |
OpenAI has just shocked the tech world by announcing the firing of CEO Sam Altman. Members of the tech community immediately expressed their opinions on social media platforms.
The OpenAI board of directors stated that they have lost confidence in Altman's ability to continue leading the company – Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015. They cited Altman's failure to "maintain transparency in communication" with board members as the reason.
“Wow! I wasn’t expecting this kind of ‘bombshell’ news today,” wrote Pietro Schirano, founder of an AI startup, on X. Matt Wolfe, a developer of AI tools websites, shared a similar sentiment, praising Altman as “an excellent and balanced ambassador for the tech world.”
Several tech leaders have praised the former OpenAI CEO for his impact on them. Eric Schmidt, investor and former Google CEO, wrote: “Sam Altman is my hero. He built a company from nothing to $90 billion and changed our world forever.”
Others speculated about the board's reasons for firing Altman. "Like everyone else, I don't know why the board fired Sam this way and so suddenly," shared tech journalist Kara Swisher. She suggested the decision could be personal or financial.
Some others still can't believe it. "Is it April Fool's Day already?" wrote Subbarao Kambha, an AI researcher at Arizona State University, on X.
According to Axios, Microsoft – the company that has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI – only learned of Altman's layoffs a minute before the news was shared with the world. Microsoft is OpenAI's closest partner and has placed its hopes on the developer ChatGPT, while OpenAI is financially and cloud-dependent on Microsoft.
Just over a week ago, Sam Altman announced the latest, more powerful version of ChatGPT at his first developer conference.
Not only that, Greg Brockman – co-founder of OpenAI with Altman and Elon Musk – also announced his departure a few hours later. “I am incredibly proud of what we have built together since we started in my apartment eight years ago. We’ve been through ups and downs, achieved so much despite everything. But based on today’s news, I’m leaving. I wish you all the best. I continue to believe in the mission of creating safe AI that benefits all of humanity.”
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