Ousted OpenAI head is welcome in France amid AI integration, digital minister says

The ousted head of OpenAI is welcome in France amid artificial intelligence (AI) integration, France’s minister in charge of digital issues said Saturday.

“Sam Altman, his team and their talents are welcome if they wish in France where we are accelerating to put artificial intelligence at the service of the common good,” Jean-Noël Barrot posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. 

OpenAI, which is the company behind ChatGPT, said that Altman would be stepping down from his role as CEO Friday. The company said this was happening after a review uncovered Altman was “not consistently candid in his communications with the board.”

“OpenAI was deliberately structured to advance our mission: to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity,” the board of directors said in a statement. “The board remains fully committed to serving this mission.” 

“We are grateful for Sam’s many contributions to the founding and growth of OpenAI,” it continued. “At the same time, we believe new leadership is necessary as we move forward.” 

As concerns have been expanding about AI, Altman came before a Senate Judiciary committee in the spring and warned that the technology could “cause significant harm to the world.”

“I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong, and we want to be vocal about that. We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening,” Altman said.