OpenAI’s Interim CEO To Probe 'Badly Handled' Altman Exit
OpenAI’s newly appointed leader, Emmett Shear, said he plans to reform the trailblazing artificial intelligence startup’s management and launch a probe into the ouster of its co-founder and previous CEO as part of his first 30 days in charge.
(Bloomberg) -- OpenAI’s newly appointed leader, Emmett Shear, said he plans to reform the trailblazing artificial intelligence startup’s management and launch a probe into the ouster of its co-founder and previous CEO as part of his first 30 days in charge.
Shear will appoint an “independent investigator” to dig into the process and communication strategy around Sam Altman’s ouster, and said it was “handled very badly, which has seriously damaged our trust,” in a post on X, formerly Twitter, early on Monday.
The executive, who’d been CEO of Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch until March, also said he’ll speak with employees, partners and investors and reform the leadership team in the wake of recent departures.
Altman was informed of his ouster as chief on Friday and replaced by OpenAI’s chief technology officer, Mira Murati — only for Murati to also be replaced by Shear as interim leader after she sought to bring Altman back into the company.
Read more: OpenAI Taps ex-Twitch CEO to Lead as Altman Joins Microsoft
Shear won over directors at OpenAI because of his past recognition of the existential threats that AI presented, a person familiar with the matter said. A computer scientist who spent more than a decade building Twitch into one of the world’s most successful video platforms, Shear is regarded as having the heft to lead a large engineering group, the person added, asking to remain anonymous discussing private matters.
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