Sam Altman Was Planning Launch Of New Venture Before OpenAI Fired Him: Reports

Reports suggest Sam Altman was mulling over a new venture before his exit from OpenAI and several other workers were also expected to join the new company.

Sam Altman, who was fired as OpenAI CEO on Saturday.

As shocking as the sudden departure of Sam Altman as OpenAI CEO would have been, the developments are still holding on to the suspense as to what happened and why. Now, reports are coming in that Altman, long before OpenAI fired him, was planning to launch a new venture. Greg Brockman, OpenAI president, who resigned shortly after Altman was sacked, would reportedly be joining the venture, reported Reuters and The Guardian. 

The crisis at the firm, which developed ChatGPT, deepened when it said Altman's ousting was for allegedly misleading the board. The company said it had lost confidence in its 38-year-old co-founder after "a deliberative review process" concluded he had not been "consistently candid in his communications", without specifying how. The company appointed 34-year-old Mira Murati as the interim CEO till it conducts a formal search for a person to permanently fill the top post.

Meanwhile, according to The Guardian, the new company was described as still "in development" and more employees are expected to leave OpenAI to join the new venture.

While the details are enough to confuse anyone, a report in The Verge said the OpenAI board is in talks with Altman for his return as the CEO, a day after removing him. A source close to Altman told The Verge the board had agreed in principle to resign and to allow Altman and Brockman to return. 

The departures shocked the tech industry on Saturday with speculations that internal divisions over AI safety could be the reason behind all of these. Jakub Pachocki, OpenAI’s director of research, Aleksander Madry, head of a team evaluating potential risks from AI, and Szymon Sidor, a researcher, had told associates they had resigned on the same day, reported The Guardian citing a report of a US tech publication, Information.

OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Altman, Brockman, Elon Musk and others and is based in San Francisco. It was launched as a not-for-profit group and was restructured in 2019.