Sam Altman will not return as CEO of OpenAI

Sam Altman will not return as the CEO of OpenAI and ex-Twitch boss Emmett Shear will become the new interim CEO, media outlet The Information reported, citing board director Ilya Sutskever’s statement to the company’s staff.

Shear co-founded Twitch and had stepped down from the Amazon.com Inc.-owned live video streaming platform earlier this year.

Altman will not return to the company as CEO despite efforts from the company’s executives to bring him back, the report said, citing Sutskever, without giving further details.

Altman and former OpenAI President Greg Brockman joined executives at the company’s San Francisco headquarters on Sunday after interim CEO Mira Murati told staff she invited Altman.

Altman is discussing a possible return to the company behind the ChatGPT bot and improving the company’s governance structure, even as he considers launching a new artificial intelligence (AI) venture.

The board of the company on Friday fired Altman, who to many was the human face of generative AI, sending shock waves across the tech industry.

Altman posted on Sunday on messaging platform X an image of himself wearing an OpenAI guest badge with the caption: “first and last time i ever wear one of these.”

Altman’s sacking angered current and former employees and worried them over how an upcoming $86 billion share sale could be affected by the sudden management upheaval.

OpenAI’s former president and co-founder, Brockman also arrived at the office on Sunday. Brockman had stepped down from the board as chairman as part of the management shuffle, and announced on Friday he quit the company.

If Altman returns to OpenAI, Microsoft, its biggest backer, is considering taking a role on the board, the Information reported on Sunday, citing two people familiar with the talks.

Microsoft could either take a seat on OpenAI’s board of directors, or as a board observer without voting power, the report added.