OpenAI picks new interim CEO, ex-head to join Microsoft

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - US-based artificial intelligence (AI) research company OpenAI picked Monday a new interim CEO after it sacked Sam Altman from his role last week.

Emmett Shear, the former co-founder and CEO of live video streaming firm Twitch, confirmed he will take the top job at OpenAI.

"Today I got a call inviting me to consider a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: to become the interim CEO of @OpenAI. After consulting with my family and reflecting on it for just a few hours, I accepted," he wrote on X.

Shear, 40, said he plans to speak to as many of employees, partners, investors and customers in OpenAI as possible in the next 30 days, and reform the management and leadership team.

"Depending on the results everything we learn from these, I will drive changes in the organization — up to and including pushing strongly for significant governance changes if necessary," he added.

While Twitch was acquired in 2014 by Amazon for $1 billion, Shear left his CEO position in the company last year.

The move came after OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, fired CEO Altman on Friday, saying he "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities."

Altman, 38, who served as the firm's CEO since 2020, has already found a new role to lead a new AI research team at Microsoft.

"We’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team," Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella wrote on X.

"We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners," he added.

After Microsoft has begun investing in OpenAI with an initial $1 billion in 2019, this amount is now estimated to have climbed up to $13 billion.