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OPEN AI CHAOS: The Whirlwind Weekend

On Friday, November 17, Open AI’s Board of Directors fired CEO Sam Altman and demoted Greg Brockman from his position as Chairman of the Board, prompting his resignation. CTO Mira Murati was promoted to Interim CEO. This move sent shock waves through the tech industry, especially hitting Microsoft (OPEN AI’s huge partner/investor) and Open AI’s VC investors, none of who were given any advance notice or input. Over the weekend because of the outcry from partners and the beginning of the exodus of staff, the Board re-opened discussions with Sam Altman and Greg Brockman about returning to OPEN AI. There was much speculation by tech press that this would become a reality. But according to The Information, late Sunday night OpenAI’s Chief Scientist and Board Director Ilya Sutskever announced that Sam Altman would not be returning and Emmitt Shear, former CEO of Twitch would be taking over as Interim CEO (effectively ending Mira Murati’s two-and-a-half day tenure as Interim CEO). This information prompted further resignations from Open AI staff.

UPDATE: MICROSOFT TO BRING SAM ALTMAN, GREG BROCKMAN and other OPEN AI STAFF ONBOARD

No one’s sleeping! Hours after the late announcements from Open AI that Sam Altman would not be returning, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced on X that Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and other Open AI staff would be joining Microsoft on an advanced research team.

The big questions:

What happens to Mira Murati? We have not yet heard the rationale behind replacing her as Interim CEO, and we don’t know if she plans to stay or join Sam and Greg at Microsoft.

What happens to Open AI’s plans to raise more money? Whatever discussions they were in have surely come to a grinding halt.

What are the legal ramifications of the Open AI’s Board moves? Open AI’s novel corporate structure created the opportunity for this coup, but did they overstep their boundaries? How do you have a board meeting to fire other board members without giving them notice? What leverage does Microsoft have from its agreements with Open AI?

Black Friday Sale On Open AI Employees

With the mass exodus of OpenAI staffers, Google, Meta, Anthropic, X.ai and others are salivating at the opportunity to pick up some of the industry’s best talent. Here’s an overnight post from Jim Fan of NVIDIA:

Disclaimer: This story is moving so fast, the information herein may be obsolete by the time you read it!