Open Links In New Tab
Mobile Archives Advertise Site News
Techmeme
November 18, 2023, 10:15 PM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter

Top News

The Verge:
Source: OpenAI's board had agreed to resign and let Sam Altman and Greg Brockman return, but has since waffled; Altman would want significant governance changes  —  The OpenAI board is in discussions with Sam Altman to return to CEO, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
Forbes:
Sources: OpenAI investors discussed reinstating Sam Altman by threatening OpenAI with mass researcher revolt, 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 …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Microsoft and Thrive are working to reinstate Sam Altman as OpenAI's CEO; Satya Nadella, blindsided by the board's decision, pledged to support Altman  —  - Possible outcome is that board resigns as soon as this weekend  — Altman has been considering new venture, but open to returning
New York Times:
Sources: Sam Altman and Greg Brockman are planning to pitch a new AI startup to investors and are considering which OpenAI employees would join them  —  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:
Source: Sam Altman was in discussions with semiconductor companies, including Arm, on the morning of November 17 about designing new chips that lower LLM costs  —  Sam Altman, the recently ousted CEO of OpenAI, has been telling investors that he is planning to launch a new artificial intelligence venture …
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 …
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 …
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
Jay Peters / The Verge:
OpenAI CTO Mira Murati becomes the interim CEO as OpenAI searches for a permanent CEO; sources say that employees found out when the news was announced publicly
Bloomberg:
Source: Ilya Sutskever and his OpenAI board allies may have been put off by Sam Altman looking to raise tens of billions to create startups off OpenAI's name
Erin Woo / The Information:
Sources: OpenAI Interim CEO Mira Murati tried to calm shell-shocked employees in a companywide meeting following Sam Altman's firing
Kara Swisher / @karaswisher:
Sources: Sam Altman's exit followed a “misalignment” between OpenAI's profit and nonprofit adherents; some may view the company's development speed as too risky
Reed Albergotti / Semafor:
Sources: OpenAI has received only a fraction of Microsoft's $10B investment, a big portion of which 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:
A look at OpenAI's complicated relationship with Microsoft, which does not have a seat on the OpenAI board due to OpenAI's origins as a non-profit organization
Forbes:
A look at OpenAI's unusual equity-less board of directors, which includes Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo, entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, and Georgetown's Helen Toner
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.

Sponsor Posts

Okara:
Meet Okara, the AI platform that doesn't train on your data  —  Chat with 30+ open-source models (Llama, Kimi, Qwen, DeepSeek) through encrypted infrastructure.  Used by teams handling proprietary code and strategy.
Soxton:
AI-powered law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Zoho:
Zoho Books Launches CT600 & Final Accounts Filing for Micro-Entities in the UK  —  Tax compliance is the fulcrum of accounting and Zoho Books has come a long way in helping different business structures in the UK stay compliant with their tax obligations.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
 Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis: AI's Next Breakthroughs, AGI Timeline, Google's AI Glasses Bet
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
 Vinod Khosla and Keith Rabois from Khosla Ventures
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
 Chuck Klosterman on Why Football Owns TV (and Why It Won't Forever)
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
The Social Radars:
 Christina Cacioppo, Founder & CEO, Vanta
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Invest Like the Best:
 Patrick O'Shaughnessy - Creating on Principle
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
 Special Edition: Key findings from the Microsoft AI Diffusion Report
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
Add your podcast here
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:15 PM ET, November 18, 2023.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Perry Stein / Washington Post:
A judge blocks US government officials from examining devices seized from reporter Hannah Natanson's home until the judge can review and rule on access issues

The Hollywood Reporter:
The FCC says TV talk shows should now comply with equal time political broadcasting rules; the board's lone Democrat calls the change a censorship escalation

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Vox executives detail how Vox is using Patreon to grow reader revenue and interactions; sign-ups grew 350% in the first two months after Trump's inauguration

More News

Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review:
An interview with DeepMind's Shane Legg and Meredith Ringel Morris, who propose five levels of AGI taxonomy and say the first, “emerging”, has been achieved
New York Times:
Argentina's election has become a testing ground for AI in campaigns, as candidates use AI-created images and videos to promote themselves and attack each other

Earlier Picks

Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global, Lionsgate, and Comcast suspend ads on X, joining Apple and other companies
Benj Edwards / Ars Technica:
Cambridge Dictionary announces “hallucinate” as its word of 2023, citing the word's new meaning: generative AI that hallucinates “produces false information”
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter