Sam Altman reportedly won’t return as OpenAI’s CEO as the board brings in another leader

A weekend full of secret talks that would have resulted in fired OpenAI CEO Sam Altman being brought back to lead the company have reportedly failed. The Verge is reporting, via unnamed sources, that not only will Altman not return as the leader of the company behind generative AI-based ChatGPT, but OpenAI’s board has now installed yet another person as interim CEO.

The new interim leader, according to the story, is former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear. He will replace Mira Murati, who served as its interim CEO for all of two days after OpenAI’s board fired Altman on Friday. It’s not yet clear if Murati, who previously served as OpenAI’s chief technology officer, will remain with the company.

This is just the latest chapter in the confusing saga of OpenAI’s leadership in the past few days. OpenAI’s board stated on Friday that Altman was fired because “he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.”

OpenAI President Greg Brockman announced his resignation from the company a few hours later in support of Altman, after being told he would no longer be serving as the board’s chairman.

Online reports claim that Altman’s push to make the company money was at odds with some of the people on the board, who felt that he was trying to launch generative AI services too quickly

However, the board fired Altman with little to no warning, and only informed key investors, including Microsoft, moments before it was announced. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was reportedly “furious” with the board’s actions, although publicly he posted a brief blog note stating that Microsoft was “committed to our partnership” with OpenAI.

On Sunday, Altman posted a selfie on X (formerly Twitter) at OpenAI’s headquarters showing off a guest badge with the caption “first and last time i ever wear one of these”. It now looks like he won’t be wearing an employee badge for OpenAI, either.