Is ChatGPT Doomed?

Sam Altman has been fired from OpenAI. Is it a sign of things to come?

2 min readNov 17

OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT, has just announced breaking news:

Sam Altman, the renowned entrepreneur and CEO of OpenAI, has been fired.

“Fired” might not technically be the correct terminology, but it seems the most fitting; Altman has been ousted by the company’s board and forced to step down from his post.

That news might not be shocking in itself, but what is surprising is the reason for the decision.

According to the company’s press release:

“Mr. Altman’s departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities. The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”

This is a sudden fall for an entrepreneur that many hailed as the next Musk or Zuckerberg. But is there a hidden reason why OpenAI’s board made this seemingly unexpected change?

And what does it mean that Sam Altman was not “consistently candid in his communications with the board?”

I may be jumping to conclusions too quickly, but it just may be that OpenAI is under financial duress.

There’s no doubt that the ChatGPT is incredibly expensive to run. According to some analysts, the AI program costs OpenAI $700,000 per day to operate.

Yes, you read that right. Seven hundred thousand dollars. Each day.

OpenAI isn’t a publicly traded company, so the company’s finances aren’t available for viewing. And depending who you ask (or what news you read), OpenAI is either making an incredible amount of money or is losing money at an alarming rate.

The truth may be more complicated. And if Sam Altman’s firing is any indication, the OpenAI’s board may not even know the truth themselves.

So what do you think? Is this a sign of the end of ChatGPT as we currently know it? Will a larger company (looking at you, Microsoft) swoop in and rescue OpenAI?

Or am I reading into it too much? Is OpenAI doing perfectly fine?

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.