CEO Sam Altman has to leave the AI company OpenAI. The AI giant sinks into chaos.

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Three bosses in 60 hours

One year after ChatGPT changed the world, the company behind artificial intelligence is sinking into chaos.

Sam Altman learned of his dismissal from a Google meeting.

OpenAI is on fire! The management changed three times in 60 hours. The result: employees could leave en masse.

CEO Sam Altmann leaves OpenAI

Mira Murati (34) took over the management of the AI company OpenAI for a short time.

The first shock news on Friday lunchtime: CEO Sam Altman (38) was dismissed by the Board of Directors in a video conference. Last year, he was the face of OpenAl, which took the world by storm in November 2022 with the chatbot ChatGPT.

Internally, there had been a battle of faith at OpenAI for some time. The initial mission was to ensure that artificial intelligence benefits humanity, not that individual corporations have power over AI. The problem: without financially backed corporations, there are no funds for further development. Sam Altman stands for the influence of corporations as clever money collectors, while the Board of Directors stands for the old ideals of OpenAl.

The conflict can only be guessed at in the Board of Directors' statement. The main reason for the dismissal: Altman's communication with the Board of Directors could have been more consistently honest.

OpenAI hostile Board of Directors.

OpenAl Chairman Greg Brockman also leaves.

On Friday afternoon, interim CEO Mira Murati and Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever tried to reassure the staff. To no avail, more of the brains behind OpenAI's success resign. The workforce is divided into two camps: pro-Altman and pro-Board of Directors.

The comeback of Sam Altman?

The dismissed CEO Altman has since been working on his comeback strategy. He initially wrote on X: "I will say more about the next steps later."

On Saturday, Altman's plans took off. On social media, numerous tech giants backed the ex-OpenAI CEO. There was also growing fear at Microsoft (the company reportedly owns 49% of OpenAI) that Altman's departure could give rise to a new artificial intelligence competitor.

By Sunday morning, it looked like Altman would return. During a visit to OpenAl headquarters, he wrote triumphantly on X: "First and last time I'll be wearing one of these (visitor badges)."

However, the negotiations went differently than Altman had imagined. The problem had to be solved by the start of trading on Monday.

Sunday evening, the resolution: Sam Altman is not coming back.

Emmet Shear becomes the third CEO within 60 hours.

Emmet Shear, co-founder and ex-CEO of the streaming platform Twitch (part of Amazon), becomes the third CEO to take the helm at OpenAI in 60 hours. There was no real peace at OpenAI after that; the company was too disrupted.

Microsoft emerges as the winner.

The big winner of the OpenAI chaos is Microsoft. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced on Monday via X: "We are very pleased to announce that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman will be joining Microsoft along with colleagues to lead a new AI research team."

Satya Nadella is the big winner in the ChatGPT chaos.

The internal ideology battle at OpenAI may have ultimately led to what the Board of Directors always wanted to prevent. Namely, Microsoft is gaining complete control over OpenAI. Following the dismissal of Sam Altman, 505 of the 700 employees asked the Board of Directors to resign. It is not unlikely that many of the employees will defect to their former boss, Sam Altman, at Microsoft.