Techmeme
November 18, 2023, 8:15 PM

Top News

The Verge:
Sources: the OpenAI board is in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO; source: Altman is “ambivalent” about coming back and would want governance changes  —  The OpenAI board is in discussions with Sam Altman to return to CEO, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Satya Nadella has been in touch with Sam Altman and pledged to support Altman with whatever steps he takes next  —  OpenAI investors are pressing the company's board to reverse its decision to fire Sam Altman as chief executive officer and remove him as a director, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Forbes:
Sources: OpenAI investors discussed reinstating Sam Altman by threatening OpenAI with mass revolt by staff, withholding Microsoft cloud credits, and a lawsuit  —  With the ousted OpenAI CEO actively discussing a new artificial intelligence venture, investors in his previous company are trying …
New York Times:
Sources: Sam Altman and Greg Brockman are in the process of pitching a new AI startup to investors  —  Sam Altman, who was forced out of his company on Friday afternoon, was quickly moving to create another company with another OpenAI executive who quit on Friday.
Kate Clark / The Information:
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 …
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...
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Source: at an OpenAI all-hands meeting, Ilya Sutskever defended Sam Altman's ouster as 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 …
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 …
Kara Swisher / @karaswisher:
Bloomberg:
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Erin Woo / The Information:
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 …
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Forbes:
Forbes:
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.
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.

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Earlier Picks

Benj Edwards / Ars Technica: