OpenAI CTO Mira Murati will take on the CEO role temporarily while the organization searches for a new head.

On Nov. 17, the board of directors of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Inc. announced they removed cofounder and CEO Sam Altman as the company’s CEO and from the board of directors. Altman will be replaced by interim CEO Mira Murati, the company’s chief technology officer. A long-term successor has not yet been named.

The board of OpenAI – which consists of OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, independent directors Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, technology entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, and Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology’s Helen Toner – was blunt with their words regarding why they removed Altman.

“Mr. 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 representatives wrote in a statement. “The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”

Following the announcement, Altman posted on X (formerly Twitter), “i loved my time at openai. it was transformative for me personally, and hopefully the world a little bit. most of all i loved working with such talented people. will have more to say about what’s next later.”

The statement also noted that, as part of the transition, Greg Brockman will step down from his role as chairman of the board,  though he will remain in his role at the company.

“OpenAI was deliberately structured to advance our mission: to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity,” the board of directors said in the statement. “The board remains fully committed to serving this mission. We are grateful for Sam’s many contributions to the founding and growth of OpenAI. At the same time, we believe new leadership is necessary as we move forward.”

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella posted on X, “As you saw at Microsoft Ignite this week, we’re continuing to rapidly innovate for this era of AI, with over 100 announcements across the full tech stack – from AI systems, models, and tools in Azure, to Copilot. Most importantly, we’re committed to delivering all of this to our customers while building for the future. We have a long-term agreement with OpenAI with full access to everything we need to deliver on our innovation agenda and an exciting product roadmap; and remain committed to our partnership, and to Mira and the team. Together, we will continue to deliver the meaningful benefits of this technology to the world.”

Note: This article was updated with posts from Altman and Nadella, and it will be updated to include analysis from AI industry experts.