‘Sam Altman is a hero…’: Eric Schmidt, Brian Chesky, other leaders praise Altman’s contribution to AI

ChatGPT-maker Open AI fired the co-founder and CEO Sam Altman after a review found he was “not consistently candid in his communications” with the board of directors. In a statement, the company said, “the board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.” Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief technology officer, will take over as interim CEO effective immediately, the company said, while it searches for a permanent replacement.

Also Read: Who is Mira Murati, the creator of ChatGPT, and now OpenAI's interim CEO?

After his removal, tech leaders have reacted and praised Altman for his accomplishments in the world of AI.

Also Read: ‘I Quit’: OpenAI President Greg Brockman resigns after Sam Altman ouster

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt hailed Sam Altman as a hero as he built the company from nothing to $90 billion in value.

In a tweet, Schmidt wrote, “Sam Altman is a hero of mine. He built a company from nothing to $90 Billion in value, and changed our collective world forever. I can't wait to see what he does next. I, and billions of people, will benefit from his future work- it's going to be simply incredible. Thank you”

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky called Altman as one of the top founders of his generation, recognizing his significant impact on the industry.

“Sam Altman is one of the best founders of his generation and has made an immense contribution to our industry,” he wrote on X.

Lattice CEO Jack Altman who is Sam's younger brother called his the most generous and caring person. “More important than being one of the most brilliant and impactful people our industry has ever had. Sam is one of the most generous and caring people I know. I've never met someone who has supported and lifted up more people around them than him. Couldn't be a prouder brother.”

Wojciech Zaremba, Co-Founder of OpenAI wrote, “it's been sad for me to see @sama and @gdb go. I love and respect them much. Despite all of these the mission of the OpenAI is bigger than any of us and stays the same - build safe AGI to benefit humanity.”

Drawing parrel between Altman's ouster and Apple firing Steve Jobs, Chief of TED Chris Anderson wrote, “I'm stunned by this. OpenAI firing @sama feels like Apple firing Steve Jobs. Who has the real story? Please, we need to know!”

Meanwhile, after OpenAI fired Sam Altman, the co-founder and President Greg Brockman has also announced that he is departing from the maker of generative artificial intelligence tools. 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.

Earlier at a panel of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco on Wednesday, Sam Altman had said that he thinks humanity is “on a path to self destruction as a species right now" and offered artificial intelligence as the solution. “We need technology if we want to flourish for tens or hundreds of millions, or thousands of millions of years," he said.

Also Read: Sam Altman announces GPT-4 Turbo. A look at what's changed with OpenAI's latest language model

He had also said that big regulatory changes weren’t needed for current AI models, but would be soon. “We don’t need heavy regulation here or probably for the next couple generations," he said. “But at some point when a model can do the equivalent output of a whole company, or a whole country, or a whole world, maybe we do want some collective supervision around that."

(With inputs from agencies)