Techmeme
November 18, 2023, 4:05 PM

Top News

Greg Brockman / @gdb:
Greg Brockman describes OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever's role in Sam Altman's firing, Brockman's removal from OpenAI's board, and Mira Murati's foreknowledge  —  Sam and I are shocked and saddened by what the board did today. Let us first say thank you to all the incredible people who we have worked with at OpenAI, our customers, our investors, and all of those who have been reaching out. We too are still trying to figure out exactly...
Jon Victor / The Information:
Sources: three senior OpenAI researchers resign, including Director of Research Jakub Pachocki, and Head of Preparedness Aleksander Madry  —  Three senior researchers at OpenAI resigned Friday night as the artificial intelligence developer suffered fallout from the firing of CEO Sam Altman …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
OpenAI co-founder and President Greg Brockman resigns “based on today's news”; the board had said Brockman would step down as chairman but remain the president  —  Sam Altman isn't the only major OpenAI executive leaving the company on Friday.  Hours after Altman was fired …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Forbes:
Kara Swisher / @karaswisher:
Sources: Sam Altman's exit followed a “misalignment” between OpenAI's profit and nonprofit sides, given the company's development speed could be viewed as risky  —  Scoop: There are about to be a lot more major departures of top folks at @OpenAI tonight and I assume Altman will make a statement tonight. But, as I understand it, it was a “misalignment” of the profit versus nonprofit adherents at the company. The developer day was an issue.
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Source: Ilya Sutskever defended Altman's ouster at an all-hands meeting, saying it was necessary to protect OpenAI's mission of making AI beneficial to humanity  —  Everything seemed to be going his way.  Then his time at OpenAI was over.  —  All over Silicon Valley …
Axios:
OpenAI memo: Sam Altman's firing wasn't due to “malfeasance” or related to financial, business, safety, or security practices but a “breakdown in communication”  —  Team - after yesterday's announcement, which took us all by surprise, we have had multiple conversations …
Bloomberg:
Source: Ilya Sutskever and his allies on the OpenAI board may have been put off by Sam Altman looking to raise funds for new companies off of OpenAI's name  —  - Safety and commercialization were central to disagreements  — Microsoft CEO was ‘blindsided,’ furious at Altman's firing
Reed Albergotti / Semafor:
Sources: OpenAI got only a fraction of Microsoft's $10B investment and a big portion of the funding is in cloud purchases, giving Microsoft significant leverage  —  Only a fraction of Microsoft's $10 billion investment in OpenAI has been wired to the startup, while a significant portion of the funding …
Erin Woo / The Information:
Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global, Lionsgate, and Comcast suspend ads on X, joining Apple and other companies  —  - Apple has paused its online advertising campaigns on X, formerly Twitter, after owner Elon Musk made antisemitic comments on the platform.
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Nothing pulls its Sunbird-based iMessage app Nothing Chats from the Play Store after a researcher found messages are not E2EE, attachments are public, and more  —  Sunbird has been promising iMessage support on Android for about a year now, but the company has always seemed rather sketchy.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Source: Microsoft learned that OpenAI was ousting CEO Sam Altman just a minute before the news was published  —  Microsoft, which has invested billions in OpenAI, learned that OpenAI was ousting CEO Sam Altman just a minute before the news was shared with the world, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The Official Microsoft Blog:
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
More: CNET, Fast Company, CNBC, Cryptopolitan, and Axios
Threads: @carnage4lifeX: @ajs and @chrisjbakke
Forbes:

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Benj Edwards / Ars Technica: