GitHub and Scale AI CEOs Pass on OpenAI CEO Role After Sam Altman Departs
After Sam Altman was removed as the OpenAI CEO, the board members faced difficulties in selecting a suitable replacement and appeared to be in a hurried state. Mira Murati was appointed as the interim CEO shortly after Altman’s departure. However, when news broke that Altman had joined Microsoft, the employees, including Murati, expressed their desire to reinstate him and even threatened to resign en masse. Surprisingly, Altman declined to return unless the OpenAI board of directors were dismissed, leaving everyone astonished.
While searching for the right candidates, OpenAI reached out to several candidates for the CEO position. In the end, the company appointed Emmett Shear as the new interim CEO. See who declined the Open AI top spot.
OpenAI CEO candidates
The Information reported that before selecting Emmett Shear for the job, the company also considered Nat Friedman, former CEO of Microsoft-owned GitHub, and Alex Wang, founder and CEO of Scale AI, for their industry expertise. However, both prominent tech personalities turned down a position at OpenAI, forcing it to look for more candidates interested in taking on the role of CEO.
Nat Friedman is an active investor in AI startups and is currently a board member of the Arc Institute and an advisor to Midjourney. Alex Wang, on the other hand, is involved in the development of artificial intelligence applications. Wang is known to be one of the youngest self-made billionaires to develop the Scale.ai platform.
Yesterday, Microsoft’s CEO announced that Altman will join the company as CEO of a new artificial intelligence research group, but Satya Nadella clarified today that that may not happen and Altman may well return to OpenAI. The back-and-forth saga has been quite interesting and surprising, because so many changes have been made in a few days. Remember that after Altman was fired, OpenAI had appointed Mira Murat as interim CEO. He was removed from this position when Shear was appointed.
Altman is also making confusing claims online that continue to cast doubt on his next move, whether he will join Microsoft or return to OpenAI. Stay tuned for more updates on the ongoing OpenAI saga.
