Sam Altman, one of the leading figures in artificial intelligence, has been sacked by OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, over an apparent clash over strategy, after the board said that it no longer had confidence in his leadership.

In a surprise announcement last night which sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley, the directors of OpenAI said its chief executive had not been “consistently candid in his communications” and that this had hindered “its ability to exercise its responsibilities”.

OpenAI said it would be run by Mira Murati, 34, the company’s chief technology officer, until a permanent replacement had been appointed.

Greg Brockman, 35, the president and co-founder of OpenAI, announced he was also quitting and revealed some of the boardroom chaos in a post on Twitter/