Disrupted Figurehead's exit plunges Al sector into chaos

The blog headline was anodyne - "OpenAI announces leadership transition" - but the consequences for Silicon Valley were seismic.

- Dan Milmo

Last Friday the company behind the hit AI text-generating system ChatGPT announced that Sam Altman, figurehead for the business and the artificial intelligence revolution that has enthralled and alarmed the world in equal measure, had been fired as chief executive.

OpenAI's non-profit board, which oversaw a commercial subsidiary run by Altman, said the 38-year-old "was not consistently candid in his communications" with its members.

Last Thursday night, Altman was invited by colleague and fellow board member Ilya Sutskever to a Google Meet call with the whole board at midday the next day.

"Ilya told Sam he was being fired and that the news was going out very soon," wrote Altman's close colleague, the OpenAI president and fellow board member Greg Brockman, on X/Twitter. Brockman was not on the call but minutes later he was also told that he was being removed from the board but would be allowed to stay at OpenAI. Brockman quit.