OpenAI's Sam Altman to depart as company's CEO

Shares of Microsoft, which has a stake in OpenAI, were down 1.91% at $368.93

Sam Altman speaks during the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation conference in San Francisco, California. Bloomberg

ChatGPT maker OpenAI said on Friday that Sam Altman would depart as the company's chief executive after the board found he was “not consistently candid in his communications”.

The company's chief technology officer Mira Murati will serve as interim chief executive, the company said. It added that it would conduct a formal search for a permanent chief executive.

“Altman's departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities,” OpenAI said.

Backed by billions of dollars from Microsoft, OpenAI kicked off the generative artificial intelligence craze last November by releasing its ChatGPT chatbot, which became one of the world's fastest-growing applications.

Mr Altman said that he loved his time at OpenAI and will have more to say about what is next later.

A Microsoft representative said that the company remains committed to OpenAI's team.

Shares of Microsoft, which has a stake in OpenAI, were down 1.91 per cent at $368.93.

Trained on reams of data, generative AI can create brand new humanlike content, helping users spin up term papers, complete science homework and even write entire novels.