Greg Brockman, the co-founder and president of OpenAI, has quit, barely a few hours after the ChatGPT-maker said it fired CEO Sam Altman, sending shockwaves across the tech world. Brockman said he was “saddened” and yet to come to terms with the board’s decision to sack Altman. He said he was sacked from the board and Altman ousted from the company during a “quick” Google Meet call.
In a statement posted on X, Brockman said he was “super proud of what we have all built together since starting in my apartment eight years ago”.
“We have been through tough and great times together, accomplishing so much despite all the reasons it should have been impossible. But based on today’s news, I quit,” he said.
He added, “Genuinely wishing you all nothing but the best. I continue to believe in the mission of creating a safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) that benefits all of humanity.”
WHAT LED TO ALTMAN’S OUSTER?
In a later tweet, Brockman said he and Altman were “shocked” and “saddened” by the board’s decision to sack them. He said they were “still figuring out what exactly happened”. Brockman shared a sequence of events that led to Altman’s ouster.
Brockman revealed that on Friday evening, Altman got a text from Ilya, who is one of the co-founders of the company, to talk at noon. Altman was then asked to join a Google Meet along with the whole board, but Brockman was not a part of the meeting. During the meeting, Ilya informed Altman that he was being fired and that the news was going out very soon.
A couple of hours after Altman was informed about his ouster from the company, Brockman also received a similar message. He was told by IIya that he was being removed from the board (but was vital to the company and would retain his role) and that Altman had been fired. Around the same time, OpenAI published a blog post.
“As far as we know, the management team was made aware of this shortly after, other than Mira who found out the night prior,” Brockman said.
ALTMAN SACKED, MIRA MURATI IS NEW INTERIM CEO
Earlier, OpenAI announced that Altman was dismissed as the company’s CEO, saying it “lost confidence in his ability to lead”. The company further said that Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will serve as interim CEO until it finalised a permanent CEO after conducting a formal search.
The board accused Altman of not being “candid in communications with them”. But it did not specifically mention what was hidden from them.
Confirming the news, Altman took to X and said, “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.”
The shock resignations of Altman and Brockman came against the backdrop of mounting deepfake cases in India, where several Bollywood actors, including Rashmika Mandanna, Katrina Kaif and Kajol, fell prey to the menace.
Backed by substantial funding from Microsoft, OpenAI initiated the generative AI trend last November with the release of its ChatGPT chatbot, swiftly becoming one of the world’s rapidly expanding software applications.