OpenAI CEO Shifts Responsibilities, Preps ‘Spud’ AI Model

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has relinquished direct oversight of the company’s safety and security teams so he can focus on raising capital, supply chains and “building datacenters at unprecedented scale,” he told staff on Tuesday.

At the same time, he said the company had completed the initial development of its next major AI model, codenamed Spud, and would wind down the Sora AI video mobile app, which employees had complained was a drag on the company’s computing resources during a time of heightened competition with foes such as Anthropic and Google. The shutdown of Sora prompted Walt Disney Co. to abandon a planned $1 billion investment in OpenAI related to a Sora licensing agreement struck last December, according to a person familiar with the situation.