OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stepped down from the Expedia Group board effective June 1, after helping the company get a jump on the new era of generative AI toward the end of his nearly four-year tenure.
In a regulatory filing, the Seattle-based online travel giant said Altman resigned “to focus on his other business interests,” and not because of any disagreement with the company, its management, or board.
Altman joined the Expedia Group board in 2019, before his rise to national prominence.
Barry Diller, the Expedia Group chairman, told the crowd at Expedia Group’s recent partner conference that Altman showed the company the potential of generative AI before OpenAI publicly released its breakthrough AI technology.
Expedia has since released AI-powered products including a ChatGPT-powered travel planning tool that lets users ask questions, and automatically saves the results of their queries for easy booking.
Alexandr Wang, founder and CEO of AI data platform Scale AI, was elected by the board to fill the vacancy created by Altman’s resignation. As noted in the regulatory filing, Wang founded Scale in 2016, as a 19-year-old MIT student. The San Francisco-based company provides AI technology to customers including autonomous vehicle makers.
Expedia Group, headquartered on the Seattle waterfront, includes brands such as vrbo, Orbitz, Hotwire, Trivago, Hotels.com, and Egencia in addition to the flagship Expedia.com.
