Hours after the board of directors of the nonprofit organization overseeing AI company OpenAI fired CEO Sam Altman, president Greg Brockman announced his resignation as president and co-founder of OpenAI. The company, which brought about ChatGPT, had removed Brockman from the company board and he was asked to report to the new CEO.

Earlier, OpenAI announced that Altman was dismissed as the company's CEO, saying it "lost confidence in his ability to lead". The company further said that Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will serve as interim CEO until it finalizes a permanent CEO after conducting a formal search.

Confirming the news, Altman took to X and said, "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."

Announcing on X (formerly Twitter), Brockman wrote, “I’m super proud of what we’ve all built together since starting in my apartment 8 years ago."

“We’ve been through tough & great times together, accomplishing so much despite all the reasons it should have been impossible. But based on today’s news, I quit," he said.

“Genuinely wishing you all nothing but the best,” Brockman wrote in his post. “I continue to believe in the mission of creating safe (artificial general intelligence) that benefits all of humanity.”

OpenAI has emerged as one of the most powerful companies in artificial intelligence after it released the wildly popular ChatGPT last November. 

In 2015, Altman assisted in establishing OpenAI as a nonprofit research laboratory. But it was ChatGPT's meteoric rise to fame that made Altman a household name as the face of generative AI, a field that creates original text, images, and other forms of media. This year, while on a globe tour, he was accosted at a London event by a throng of enthusiastic fans.

Earlier this week, it was reported that OpenAI has intensified the hiring process to lure the top talents from rival tech giants like Meta and Google and is offering hefty pay packages. AI firm has been trying to build its capacity for the development of AI chatbots, particularly the popular ChatGPT.

Image source: Getty Images