- The OpenAI board removed Sam Altman from his position as CEO, stating they no longer had confidence in his leadership amid allegations of misconduct.
- Altman’s departure coincided with a 12% price drop of Worldcoin cryptocurrency, which Altman helped create and was an initial investor in.
- OpenAI appointed existing board member and original co-founder Greg Brockman as the new sole CEO, who aims to create advanced AI that benefits humanity.
The OpenAI board recently announced that it has removed Sam Altman from his position as CEO, stating that it “no longer has confidence in [Altman’s] ability to continue leading” the company. This news also coincided with a 12% drop in the price of Worldcoin (WLD), a cryptocurrency that Altman helped create.
Background on Sam Altman and OpenAI
Sam Altman was one of the co-founders of OpenAI in 2015 alongside Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and others. He served as the CEO for the company from its inception.
OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research organization based in San Francisco. The goal of OpenAI is to promote and develop AI in a way that benefits humanity. The company pursues open research and open access to AI systems.
Altman’s Departure from OpenAI
In a statement, the OpenAI board explained that the decision to remove Altman was made after “a review of his conduct and workplace behavior.” While the board did not provide specifics, they stated they no longer had confidence in Altman’s leadership.
An OpenAI spokesperson said the company had received allegations regarding Altman’s conduct and investigated them. They stated that the board made the right decision, even though it was difficult.
Altman said he was surprised by the decision but accepted the board’s conclusion. He stated on Twitter that the organization deserved unified leadership in order to reach its goals.
Worldcoin and Altman’s Involvement
In addition to his role at OpenAI, Altman was also involved in founding the cryptocurrency Worldcoin in 2021. He served as an initial investor and advisor for the project.
Worldcoin uses iris-scanning technology to prevent duplicate sign-ups and was designed to distribute cryptocurrency globally.
On the day Altman’s removal from OpenAI was announced, the price of Worldcoin dropped around 12%, from $0.248 to $0.218. This drop was likely related to the news regarding Altman.
The Future of OpenAI
With Altman’s departure, OpenAI appointed existing board member Greg Brockman as the new sole CEO of the company. Brockman was one of the original co-founders of OpenAI along with Altman back in 2015.
Brockman said his focus as CEO would be on creating advanced AI to benefit humanity as a whole while minimizing harms. OpenAI will likely continue pursuing its core mission under Brockman’s leadership.
The circumstances around Altman’s removal are unclear, but OpenAI remains committed to responsible AI development. The leadership change also impacted Worldcoin, but the long-term effects remain to be seen.
