Sam Altman, the head of artificial intelligence firm OpenAI, has been ousted by the company's board, which said it had lost confidence in his ability to lead the company.
The board said Mr Altman had not been "consistently candid with his communications"
The maker of the ChatGPT bot, OpenAI is behind a wave of excitement about artificial intelligence.
Mr Altman helped launch the firm.
The 38-year-old had also become a spokesman of sorts for the burgeoning industry, appearing before Congress this year to testify about new rules for artificial intelligence.
On social media, Mr Altman wrote that he had loved his time at the company.
"It was transformative for me personally, and hopefully the world a little bit. Most of all I loved working with such talented people," he wrote. "Will have more to say about what's next later."
In a statement the board said it was grateful
OpenAI started in 2015 as a non-profit.
It restructured in 2019 and is now backed by Microsoft, which has invested billions.
Just weeks ago, OpenAI was reportedly in talks to sell shares in the company to investors at a price that would value it at more than $80bn (£64bn).
ChatGPT is known for its ability to respond to prompts from users with human-like text, images and videos.
Hundreds of millions of people have tried it out, and many are now regularly using it to help them do their jobs and study - to consternation in some cases, like teachers facing essays written by the bot and people worried for their jobs.
The company has also faced legal action from writers who say the bot developed its abilities by harvesting their work, in violation of copyright law.
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