Emmett Shear Takes Up CEO Role at OpenAI

By Jack Joshua

Posted on 20 November 2023

-Emmett Shear is the new CEO of the AI firm OpenAI

-This comes days after the AI firm fired Sam Altman

Emmett Shear has confirmed his appointment as OpenAI’s new CEO.

Shear is taking over from Sam Altman, who was fired on Friday by the board.

Taking to X, the incoming CEO, who is also Twitch co-founder, described OpenAI as “one of the most important companies currently in existence.”

“Today I got a call inviting me to consider a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: to become the interim CEO of @OpenAI. After consulting with my family and reflecting on it for just a few hours, I accepted,” he said in a post on X.

OpenAI’s board fired its former CEO Altman on Friday, November 17, prompting other high-profile departures from the company.

Some of the major investors reportedly wanted Altman back.

Today I got a call inviting me to consider a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: to become the interim CEO of @OpenAI. After consulting with my family and reflecting on it for just a few hours, I accepted. I had recently resigned from my role as CEO of Twitch due to the birth of my…

— Emmett Shear (@eshear) November 20, 2023

In his post, Shear admitted that communication around Altman’s sacking had dented the company’s reputation.

“It’s clear that the process and communications around Sam’s removal have been handled very badly, which has seriously damaged our trust.”

Sam Altman. Photo/courtesy

He further dismissed claims that Altman’s sacking was due to safety concerns.

“Before I took the job, I checked on the reasoning behind the change. The board did *not* remove Sam over any specific disagreement on safety; their reasoning was completely different from that,” he wrote.

“I’m not crazy enough to take this job without board support for commercialising our awesome models.”

A short while before Shear’s post, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed he was hiring Altman to lead an AI research team at the global tech titan.

“We look forward to getting to know Emmett Shear and OAI’s new leadership team and working with them,” Nadella said in a post on X.

Shear promised to reform the management and leadership “into an effective force to drive results for our customers.”

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