The deal to bring Sam Altman back to OpenAI has fallen apart
Sam Altman isn’t coming back to OpenAI
The deal to bring Sam Altman back to OpenAI has fallen apart::After negotiations to bring Sam Altman back as OpenAI’s CEO fell apart, Emmett Shear was named interim CEO by the nonprofit’s board.
"We keep thinking like OpenAI is a company that has a clue what it is doing because they have this amazing product that is getting used everywhere in business. In reality, they are a startup, and startups are going to have startup problems. We cannot treat them or their product like they are established and stable."
-my wife, who leads work at another company with OpenAI tech
I know the above quote is from someone "unimportant" in the industry, but to me it encapsulates exactly what we have seen from OpenAI in the past couple weeks. She became simultaneously reassured and more worried when Satya Nadella, the highly respected CEO of Microsoft, became directly involved. I wonder what she will think of this development when she wakes up.
What does she think with the news that Altman and co. will be joining Microsoft?
She rolled her eyes and said, "Well, I'm glad that our contract is only for [a limited period of time].”
It was not a vote against the whole shift, but instead a comment on the volatility of this space. The tech and the associated market is changing so fast that there are no real experts, proven business models, or established long term use cases. Everyone is experimenting, and nothing is set in stone. This change means the dust is not yet settling.
It's a big tech company. Unless you're an actual coal-face developer or sysadmin, most of the actual challenges will be the same regardless of what the machines with the blinky lights are actually doing.
It's not like the CEO is expected to be cutting code.
Watch Microsoft’s stock today lol
Edit: huh… they hired Altman and friends. Interesting.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Shear will take over as interim OpenAI CEO from Mira Murati, who was publicly aligned with Altman.
The hiring of Shear appears to close the door on Altman’s exit after he was fired Friday when the board said he had not been “consistently candid in his communications.” As we reported Saturday, the board quickly began discussing the CEO’s return under pressure from investors and the threat of a mass employee walkout.
On Saturday night, sources told The Verge the remaining board members had missed a 5PM PT deadline to resign and reinstate Altman and fellow co-founder Greg Brockman or face a slew of staff resignations.
After the deadline passed, droves of OpenAI employees started posting their support for Altman on social media.
OpenAI’s profile has skyrocketed since the launch of ChatGPT, which quickly became one of the fastest-growing services ever and kicked off a tech gold rush over generative AI.
Earlier this month, Altman reported that the service has over 100 million weekly users.
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