Sam Altman was reportedly fired as OpenAI CEO after losing the confidence of the artificial intelligence firm's board of directors. Yahoo Finance's Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton review Altman's role in 2023's AI hype cycle and what this news could mean for the AI landscape.

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This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

- Breaking news.

Sam Altman is out as CEO of OpenAI.

The company just announcing a leadership transition, and it appears Altman was fired.

The board saying Altman had not been consistently candid with the board.

He will be replaced by Mira Murati, who currently serves as CTO-- Chief Technology Officer.

So this is an earthquake.

Really, truly.

Sam Altman is a big name in Silicon Valley.

What we know right now is the board has said Sam Altman is going to step down as CEO.

The CTO steps in here as sort of interim while they look for a permanent replacement.

I think the money code here is the board saying that it conducted a deliberative review process, concluded he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board hindering its ability to exercise its responsibility.

They go on to say the board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.

- Yes, exactly.

So, this raises a lot of questions.

What exactly happened here?

And perhaps more information will come out at this point.

Why is this so important?

Why is this so earth-shattering?

He's not just a big deal in Silicon Valley, he has become the face of AI or at least one of the main faces of AI.

He's testified before Congress.

He's met with CEOs.

OpenAI of course, a main partner for the likes of Microsoft.

And ChatGPT has really been the AI product in Generative AI that has changed the perception of its abilities earlier this year.

And he is intertwined with all of that.

So, the fact that he is now effectively being fired, and he also co-founded OpenAI, by the way, all of this is a very big deal.

As part of it Greg Brockman who co-founded it, this organization with him will be stepping down as chairman of the board as well.

He'll remain in his role at the company, though reporting to the CEO, who again on an interim basis will be Mira Murati.

And then presumably they'll either appoint her permanently or find another permanent CEO.

- Yeah, I mean, you look at OpenAI, listen, it went from kind of small nonprofit to a multi-billion dollar company, and it was Sam Altman who helped steer that, right?

They unveil their AI ChatGPT goes viral, it was Sam Altman who helped convince the likes of Microsoft, which has put in more than $10 billion into this company.

And as you said, also, Julian, it's a good point, it's not just OpenAI.

He is truly one of the preeminent faces of the industry.

It's Sam Altman, who was on Capitol Hill talking to lawmakers about what future regulation could look like.

It was Sam Altman, who just this week talking to APAC.

APAC about what the future of AI is going to look like.

So this is a big deal as you said.

A lot of questions, though, about what exactly happened here?

- Yes, will we hear from Sam Altman directly.

Will we get more information about, why he was asked to leave?

What will he do next?

If anything, will we not hear from him for a while?

Will he move to another organization?

A lot of questions that I think we'll be looking at for quite some time here.