Emmett Shear, who was appointed interim CEO of OpenAI, announced what he will be doing over the next 30 days in his new post. First, Shear plans to evaluate the events that led to the dismissal of former CEO Sam Altman. In addition, he plans to restructure OpenAI’s management team.
Emmett Shear. Image source: Flickr/Kris Krug
Shear shared the three-point plan via his social media page X (formerly Twitter), just hours after being appointed to the post. In the past three days, Shear has become the second person to become OpenAI’s interim CEO. After the company’s board of directors decided to fire Sam Altman as CEO on Friday, the company’s chief technology officer, Mira Murati, took his place on an interim basis. Along with a number of other top managers, Shear previously criticized the decision taken by the OpenAI board of directors to fire Altman.
Shear said his first task as OpenAI’s interim CEO would be hiring an investigator. The latter’s job will be to assess the events that led to Altman’s dismissal. The second point of his plan involves continuing to engage with stakeholders, including the organization’s employees, partners, investors and clients. Shear also announced that he intends to shake up OpenAI’s leadership “in light of recent layoffs.”
In addition to Altman, at least three other leading experts and researchers were fired from OpenAI: Jakub Pachocki, director of research; Aleksander Madry, the team leader responsible for analyzing the risks of using AI, as well as researcher Szymon Sidor. It was also previously reported that Greg Brockman, who served as chairman of the company’s board of directors, left OpenAI along with Altman. Together with Altman, they are co-founders of OpenAI.
“Depending on the results [расследования] I initiate changes in the organization – even to the point of strongly insisting on significant changes in management, if necessary. Decisions will be communicated as the situation becomes clearer over the next 30 days,” Shear said.
Shear added that OpenAI’s stability and success are too important to be allowed to be disrupted by this turmoil. He also stated that he would try to resolve all the key issues that had arisen. However, he added that it may take more than a month to make real progress.
OpenAI employees were notified by management last Sunday that Altman would not be returning to the company. A few hours later, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that Altman, former board chairman Greg Brockman, and a number of other former OpenAI employees who had left after the former leader had joined them.
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