THE NEWS

⚠️OpenAI is imploding: CEO fired, dozens quit

Like a scene straight out of Succession, Ilya Sutskever, the Chief Scientist of OpenAI and the brain behind ChatGPT, asked Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, for a quick call on Friday. To the surprise of Altman the whole board was on the call except Greg Brockman, the president of OpenAI. Ilya told Sam he was being fired.

The reason: “He was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.”

Soon after, they called Brockman to tell him that he was being removed from the board as well but was vital to the company and would retain his role. Greg, shocked by the ousting of Sam, resigned.

Three key employees did the same, after receiving the news.

It sent shockwaves throughout the industry. Microsoft, their biggest investor owning a 49% stake in the company, was only notified minutes before OpenAI went public with the news. And then…radio silence from the OpenAI board.

Reportedly Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO was fuming. Their partnership has been vital for Microsoft in its bid to win the AI race and wanted answers. And so did the AI community and the OpenAI employees.

Did Ilya hit the AGI panic button?

Even though the company received over $10 billion in investment, the board seats weren’t held by investors but by six individuals. It was designed to protect the company (that started out as a non-profit) from getting derailed in their mission to develop a safe AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) that is beneficial for everybody.

Looks like the breakup happened because the board couldn't agree on what to focus on: growing the company bigger or making sure AI development stays safe.

Just a few weeks back at a conference, Sam dropped some hints about a big tech breakthrough on the horizon. He's also been super keen on getting more funds to push forward with developing GPT-5 and beyond.

Meanwhile, Ilya's been showing signs of frustration the last few weeks. He and other board members might have grown concerned about the pressure by investors and the shift in focus to the plethora of new products, which drew attention and resources away from core research, leading them to fire Sam.

Some even speculated that OpenAI had achieved AGI – an AI system surpassing human intelligence in every field – leading to disagreements within the board on how to handle it.

The Return of Sam?

24 hours later Sam Altman was back in the OpenAI office…as a guest. They were in talks about a potential comeback with Mira Murati who was appointed interim CEO the day before.

But in another twist the board doubled down on their decision and hired Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch, as the new interim CEO of OpenAI. Shear has been public about his fear of the technology going sideways. Click on the tweet for the video.

A Sunday night memo about Sam not coming back made dozens of staffers quit. And rivals are not sleeping on this one… Google has been reportedly trying to lure talent throughout the weekend.

Microsoft might come out victorious

Another bombshell was dropped this morning by Satya Nadella. Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with other OpenAI colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team.

Satya’s move to secure the team before markets open was masterful and will probably mitigate the impact of the weekend drama on their stock prices.

With talent jumping ship and PR headaches, OpenAI's in for a bumpy ride.

This drama will slow the company down for sure which might have been the goal for the safety conscious board members. However they are handing over the reins and shift power to companies like Google and Microsoft. It’s anyone's guess right now whether the new CEO can make the company recover and stay relevant.

This has been the most intense drama the AI community has seen and it will probably go down in the history of AI as a pivotal moment.

Let’s hope we find out all the details soon. I’ll keep you updated on any developments.

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ONE MORE THING

AI Attenborough can narrate your life in real time.

This fun tool made with GPT Vision, can narrate what it sees on your webcam in the voice of the king of wildlife documentaries. Click on the tweet for the video.

⌚ If you have one more minute

• 🤝Germany, France and Italy reach agreement on future AI regulation

• 🧩Meta breaks up its Responsible AI team

AI Art of the Day 🎨

Hogwarts party imagined by Midjourney. Check out the whole collection here!

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