OpenAI taps former Twitch chief Emmett Shear to succeed Sam Altman

OpenAI’s board has selected Emmett Shear as its interim chief executive, the co-founder of video streaming service Twitch confirmed on Monday.

The unexpected move is set to deepen rifts at the company, which were exposed by the sacking of co-founder Sam Altman on Friday.

Shear is the second interim appointment in three days, after the board initially replaced Altman with chief technology officer Mira Murati on Friday afternoon, a decision that plunged the leading generative artificial intelligence company into crisis.

“I took this job because I believe that OpenAI is one of the most important companies currently in existence,” Shear said in a lengthy post on X. “I want to do everything in my power to protect it and grow it further.”

On Monday morning Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella announced he was hiring Altman and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman to lead a team conducting AI research.

In his post, Shear outlined what he described as a “three point plan for the next 30 days”, namely to “hire an independent investigator to dig into the entire process leading up to this point and generate a full report”, speak with “employees, partners, investors and customers”, and “reform the management and leadership team in light of recent departures into an effective force to drive results for our customers”.

He said that “OpenAI’s stability and success are too important to allow turmoil to disrupt them like this”.

“I will endeavour to address the key concerns as well, although in many cases I believe it may take longer than a month to achieve true progress,” he added.

In the weeks before Altman was ousted, internal tensions about the pace and commercialisation of AI technology had been brewing, with Altman among those eager to press home his company’s advantage as the leader in the field, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Shear has publicly advocated for a slower rollout. In a series of posts on X in September, he wrote: “I’m in favour of a slowdown. 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 barrelling ahead at max speed either.”

That stance aligns Shear with Ilya Sutskever, the sole remaining co-founder on OpenAI’s board, who leads efforts to control superintelligent systems at the company.

OpenAI’s leading investors, including Microsoft, and dozens of employees rallied to Altman’s side over the weekend in an effort to have him reinstated as chief executive.

On Sunday afternoon, their attempts looked likely to succeed when Altman made a dramatic return to the company office. Brandishing a guest pass, the former chief posted on X: “First and last time I ever wear one of these”.

But in a message to staff on Sunday night, Sutskever announced Shear’s appointment, dashing hopes of a speedy return for Altman and raising further questions about the company’s future.

One person with knowledge of the board’s decision to appoint Shear said: “He was really strongly recommended by a bunch of senior Silicon Valley folks. He understood the mission, he understood that he might have a rough patch on his hands because employees are super unhappy.”

Shear also hinted in his post at the reason why Altman was fired on Friday. “The board did *not* remove Sam over any specific disagreement on safety, their reasoning was completely different from that,” he said. “I’m not crazy enough to take this job without board support for commercialising our awesome models.”

On Sunday night, many staff at the company were weighing their futures, according to a person with knowledge of their thinking. A number of employees took to X to express their anguish at the turmoil that consumed OpenAI over the weekend.

Logan Kilpatrick, who works in developer relations at the company, wrote: “This has been an utterly devastating last 3 days.” A member of OpenAI’s technical staff announced in a post that they were quitting.

Another pressing issue for Shear is how to retain the support of investors, including venture firms Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital, which fought to reinstate Altman. A plan to sell as much as $1bn in employee stock, which was nearing completion, is in the balance, according to people with direct knowledge of the deal. Thrive Capital was set to lead that tender offer, which was expected to value OpenAI at $86bn.

The non-profit board, which controls the for-profit company, will remain in place, but neither Altman nor Brockman, who also left OpenAI on Friday, will return, according to one of the people with knowledge of the discussions.

It was not immediately clear what would happen to Murati.

Alongside Sutskever on the board are independent directors Adam D’Angelo, the chief executive of Quora; technology entrepreneur Tasha McCauley; and Helen Toner from Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

Unlike a typical for-profit company, which has fiduciary duties to shareholders, OpenAI’s board is committed to a charter that pledges to ensure AI is developed for the benefit of all humanity.

In announcing the decision to sack Altman on Friday, the board claimed he had not been “completely candid”. A person with knowledge of the decision said it had become “impossible to oversee” Altman, whose “superpower” was to shape narratives and influence powerful people for his own purposes.

“There was no one big problem. The board reached the point where they couldn’t believe what Sam told them,” said the person with direct knowledge of the board’s decision.

Altman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

His sacking follows growing unease about the pace of development and commercialisation of the powerful technology OpenAI is building, as well as concerns about Altman’s fundraising for projects outside of the company, including a plan to develop a chip factory with the support of Middle Eastern backers, according to people with knowledge of the dispute.