(Reuters) -ChatGPT maker OpenAI said on Friday Sam Altman will depart as the company's chief executive officer after the board found he was "not consistently candid in his communications".

OpenAI's Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will serve as interim CEO, the company said, adding that it will conduct a formal search for a permanent CEO.

"Altman's departure follows a deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities," according to OpenAI.

Backed by billions of dollars from Microsoft, OpenAI kicked off the generative AI craze last November by releasing its ChatGPT chatbot, which became one of the world's fastest-growing applications.

Altman was not immediately available for comment, while Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shares of Microsoft, which has a stake in OpenAI, were down 1.91% at $368.93.

Trained on reams of data, generative AI can create brand-new humanlike content, helping users spin up term papers, complete science homework and even write entire novels.

(Reporting by Samrhitha Arunasalam in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)