Chaos and Upheaval at OpenAI
A Comprehensive Breakdown of the Firing of Sam Altman as CEO.
Today’s Highlights:
📰 News: Chaos and Upheaval at OpenAI as Sam Altman initially fired as CEO by board, yet could be reinstated shortly as Investors, Executives, and Employees push back aggressively against the board’s decision.
⚡️ Top News Stories:
Chaos and Upheaval at OpenAI!
TLDR: What started with the unexpected firing of Sam Altman as CEO, has led to over 700 of 770 OpenAI employees demanding that Altman be reinstated at the threat of leaving OpenAI, and joining Altman at Microsoft on a new AI team.
For a even more detailed breakdown of the entire timeline of events click here but here are the most crucial highlights thus far:
On Friday Nov. 17, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, was unexpectedly fired by the board of directors.
Greg Brockman, OpenAI's co-founder and president, resigned following Altman's firing, along w/ 3 senior OpenAI researchers.
The firing was announced publicly on OpenAI's blog.
At an all-hands meeting at OpenAI, Ilya Sutskever, Chief Scientist/Co-Founder at OpenAI, defended the decision to oust Altman as necessary for the company's mission.
Meanwhile Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella released a statement reaffirming commitment to OpenAI and its new interim CEO, Mira Murati.
OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap clarified that the firing was not due to malfeasance or financial issues, but simply a breakdown in communication, as even the management team was surprised.
Over the weekend, outrage from investors and executives grew as they pushed the board to reinstate Altman as CEO.
On the morning of Monday Nov. 20, the board then replaced Interim CEO Mira Murati w/ a new Interim CEO, Emmet Shear, co-founder of Twitch.
Altman and Brockman then announced they’d join Microsoft to lead a new AI research team, while negotiations for their return to OpenAI currently continue.
730 of OpenAI’s roughly 770 employees published a letter stating that they may quit unless the board resigns and reappoints Altman.
Surprisingly, Ilya Sutskever, also signed the letter, saying that he regrets the decision to remove Altman and will work to reinstate Altman as CEO.
Investors are also continuing to pressuring OpenAI's board to reinstate Altman, w/ Microsoft's Nadella reportedly supportive.
The planned sale of OpenAI employee shares at an $86Bn valuation is now uncertain.
Meanwhile, as details of this strange saga continue to be revealed, It’s been reported that the board of directors approached Dario Amodei, co-founder/CEO of rival AI company Anthropic, about a potential merger of the two companies, as an effort to persuade Amodei to replace Altman as CEO.
2. Microsoft's new 'Model as a Service' on Azure strategically expands AI offerings beyond OpenAI, integrating models from Meta, Mistral, and Cohere.
3. Meta disbands its Responsible AI team, signaling a strategic shift towards intensifying generative AI efforts, while raising questions about it’s ethical oversight.
4. Amazon launches "AI Ready" global initiative, a free set of gen-AI courses, aimed at equipping millions w/ AI skills, while promoting its own AI products.
5. Cohere partners w/ BlueDot to revolutionize access to infectious disease data, enabling natural language queries and expanding accessibility; a significant advancement in global public health.
6. The EU's ambitious AI bill is at risk as France, Germany, and Italy oppose heavy regulation, favoring a more innovation-friendly and self-regulated approach.
7. UnitedHealth sued for allegedly using a faulty AI model with a 90% error rate to deny necessary medical coverage to elderly patients.
💰 Top Funding News:
1. Malou, an AI-powered platform designed to enhance the digital presence of restaurants, raised a $10M round, led by henQ and Bleu Capital.
2. Lasso Security, a cybersecurity startup that has developed a solution to address security vulnerabilities in LLMs, emerged from stealth w/ a $6M Seed Round, led by Entrée Capital, with participation from Samsung Next.
3. Siena AI, an AI-powered customer support solution that combines the efficiency of AI with the empathy of human interaction, raised a $4.7M Seed Round, from Sierra Ventures, Pari Passu Ventures, Spacestation Investments, Village Global, The Council, and OpenSky Ventures.
4. Artisan, an AI startup focused on developing human-like digital workers, raised a $2.3M Pre-Seed round, from Bayhouse Capital and Oliver Jung
5. Scalestack, an AI-powered data enrichment, prioritization, and activation platform designed for Revenue Operations, raised a $1M Seed Round from Ripple Ventures, Forum Ventures, Flyer One Ventures, Founders Network Fund, and others.