🎢 OpenAI's Wild Ride - Fired, Hired, and Reviving OpenAI in One Weekend

🎢 OpenAI's Wild Ride - Fired, Hired, and Reviving OpenAI in One Weekend

First off, if you’re in the U.S., Happy Thanksgiving 🦃 and unless you’ve been under a rock the past week, you know that some serious tech drama went down at OpenAI that had the potential to change the future of humanity (I wish that was hyperbole). Below is a timeline of what has happened so far:

• Friday, November 17:

  • OpenAI's board fired CEO Sam Altman, causing shockwaves across the tech industry​​.

  • Mira Murati, OpenAI's CTO, was appointed as interim CEO​​.

  • The board cited Altman's lack of candor as the reason for his dismissal​​.

  • Greg Brockman, OpenAI president and co-founder, also quit the company​​.

  • Altman joined Microsoft as the head of artificial intelligence research​​.

• Over the Weekend:

  • Altman's dismissal led to major upheaval within OpenAI​​.

  • Nearly all of OpenAI's staff threatened to leave and join Microsoft unless the board reinstated Altman​​.

• Tuesday, November 21:

  • Sam Altman was reappointed as CEO of OpenAI​​.

  • OpenAI announced a new initial board, including former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor as chair​​.

  • The return of Altman was seen as potentially ushering in a more profit-focused and less risk-averse era for OpenAI​​.

  • Microsoft's role in OpenAI is expected to become more significant​​.

• Wednesday, November 22:

  • It was reported that ahead of Sam Altman’s ousting, several staff researchers wrote a letter to the board of directors warning of a powerful artificial intelligence discovery that they said could threaten humanity. ehhhhh wut 🫠

For our purposes, the most fascinating part of this insane roller coaster cup of tea is the solidarity in which OpenAI’s 700+ employees showed for Sam Altman. Literally the entire company was ready to walk out. However, we won’t quite give them the golden badge of courage as they all knew their OpenAI equity was worthless without Sam, and Microsoft was ready to hire every one of them within a few hours.

With that said, I’m not sure many companies exist where every employee would walk out to save their CEO.

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