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This story has been updated to include news of Emmet Shear's appointment.
Talks to return ousted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to the startup's helm have fallen through as Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear is named as interim chief executive.
After a frantic weekend of negotiations in an attempt to reverse Altman's dismissal, the former CEO is now confirmed to be joining Microsoft, OpenAI's biggest financial backer, to lead its new advanced AI research team.
Shear, who was previously CEO of Amazon-owned video livestreaming company Twitch, will replace Mira Murati with the aim of reforming OpenAI's management and leadership team. Murati was appointed as interim CEO Friday.
Altman's dismissal as the head of OpenAI came as a shock after its board said it no longer had confidence in his ability to lead the startup. The board gave no reason for Altman's removal beyond issuing a statement saying that he "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board."
Greg Brockman, who co-founded the company with Altman, quit in protest as president after the board announced he would be stepping down as its chair—he will be joining Altman at Microsoft.
Investors and employees mounted a pressure campaign to reinstate Altman as CEO almost immediately following his abrupt firing. Microsoft reportedly sent its CEO, Satya Nadella, to broker talks between Altman and OpenAI's board for his return.
At the core of Altman's demands to return was a completely new board and governance structure, according to reports. While the board agreed in principle to such an arrangement, talks reportedly fell through.
The sudden upheaval at OpenAI, one of the fastest-growing startups of all time, has sent shock waves through the startup world. The company's revolutionary large language models have been used to launch countless products since the public release of ChatGPT in November 2022. Earlier this month, Altman helmed OpenAI's first-ever developer conference, an event that drew comparisons to the launch of the Apple App Store.
Despite frantic fundraising by generative AI leaders like OpenAI, deals within the segment cooled in Q3 2023, according to PitchBook data. While closed models like ChatGPT have dominated public discourse, startups have embraced cheaper open-source models with the encouragement of their VC backers.
During his tenure at OpenAI, Altman rose to become a prolific VC investor in his own right. He previously served as the president of Y Combinator and was CEO of Reddit for eight days in 2014.
Shear, who also previously worked at Y Combinator as a part-time partner, now has the task of repairing the tensions at OpenAI, which have sparked fears of a talent exodus from the company.
Dozens of OpenAI employees have announced internally that they are quitting, The Information reported. Three senior researchers Jakub Pachocki, Aleksander Madry, and Szymon Sidor have reportedly resigned.
In contrast to Altman, Shear has advocated for a slowdown in the advancement of generative AI. In a post on X in September, he wrote: "We can't learn how to build a safe AI without experimenting, and we can't experiment without progress, but we probably shouldn't be barreling ahead at max speed either."
Shear has, however, stated his support for the continued commercialization of OpenAI's models.