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A "juvenile 4-person board" and "kids' poker" are some of the words being bandied about today as the entire social media collectively erupts with hot takes on the power moves that transpired over the weekend, relegating the erstwhile apex predator of the world of generative artificial intelligence to the dustbin of history as Microsoft ascends the proverbial throne while treading on OpenAI's crumbling carcass.
What Happened?
As we reported on Friday, OpenAI's board of directors fired its then-CEO, Sam Altman, with nary a prior notice for not being "consistently candid," a deliberately vague charge that immediately set the proverbial tongues wagging on social media. Soon after, OpenAI's President and Co-founder, Greg Brockman, also resigned via a terse post on X.
This move unleashed a frenzy of discussions between all leading stakeholders, including OpenAI's largest shareholder, Microsoft. For a time on Saturday, it appeared that Altman would return to OpenAI. Those hopes, however, have now been dashed.
I’m super excited to have you join as CEO of this new group, Sam, setting a new pace for innovation. We’ve learned a lot over the years about how to give founders and innovators space to build independent identities and cultures within Microsoft, including GitHub, Mojang Studios,…
— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) November 20, 2023
Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella, has now announced that Sam Altman is joining the tech behemoth as the CEO of an all-new AI-focused unit.
After dithering with Altman and his side for a few more hours, they dropped this out of left field, introducing a ceo who is — and I am being generous here, less than impressive in comparison to the interim ceo @miramurati and obvi Altman. But she wanted Altman and @gdb back,…
— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) November 20, 2023
Meanwhile, OpenAI has replaced its interim CEO, Mira Murati, with the co-founder of Twitch, Emmett Shear.
Now OAI accelerated in its new direction. It wasn't open any more, and it decided to pursue profits to fund its non-profit goals.
Nonetheless, the company remained controlled by the non-profit, and therefore by its board. pic.twitter.com/N9MZTWusky
— Jeremy Howard (@jeremyphoward) November 18, 2023
While not officially confirmed, it is widely believed that the board was uncomfortable with the increasingly mercantile bent of Altman that supposedly deviated from OpenAI's non-profit charter.
The Fallout: Microsoft at the Apex as OpenAI Bleeds Talent
.@DivesTech: "The embarrassing circus show over the weekend at OpenAI was finally taken over by the adults in the room at Microsoft as Nadella & Co. now have added the linchpins of AI Sam Altman & Greg Brockman to join $MSFT to lead advanced AI research team." pic.twitter.com/5nyKYoD6Kw
— The Transcript (@TheTranscript_) November 20, 2023
The reaction to these fast-paced developments has been anything but placid, with Wedbush's Dan Ives leading with the following observation:
“In a nutshell, the JV 4 Person Board at OpenAI was at the kids' poker table and thought they won until Nadella and Microsoft took this all over in a World Series of Poker move for the ages with the Valley and Wall Street watching with white knuckles Sunday night/Monday early am. We view Microsoft now even in a STRONGER position from an AI perspective with Altman and Brockman at MSFT running AI.”
A huge number of OpenAI's employees have been posting the following message on X:
"OpenAI is nothing without its people."
Meanwhile, it seems that the head-hunting for all of OpenAI's remaining talent has begun in earnest, with some of the deepest pockets now competing to outbid each other for the firm's key employees.
☢️☢️☢️ pic.twitter.com/xmz1TJKTrr
— Dylan LeClair 🟠 (@DylanLeClair_) November 20, 2023
A growing number of OpenAI employees have threatened to quit unless the entire board resigns. There appears to be substantial resentment within the company over how the board handled its disagreements with Sam Altman.
OpenAI is going to collapse
Microsoft, Google, and anyone with a budget is going to raid what’s left of the team that doesn’t go with Sam
The entire poker table has been tossed over… chips, drinks, cards, players strewn everywhere — complete chaos.
And chaos is a ladder…
— @jason (@Jason) November 20, 2023
It was widely believed that OpenAI was at least 18 months ahead of the rest of the AI pack in terms of technology. However, given the necessity of inducting new talent and promoting junior developers now, OpenAI's lead might feasibly be cut in half as the new occupants try to parse and understand the entire code base. And, this constitutes a rosy scenario for the embattled company, one that assumes it can retain enough of its critical talent base. Do note that dozens of OpenAI staffers have already communicated that they will not return. From a mercantile point of view, this stance makes sense. After all, if OpenAI is returning to its non-profit roots, the avenues for personal enrichment will be quite limited. As per the prevailing convention, you need big bucks to attract crème de la crème of talent.
OpenAI just nuked itself from within in 72 hours. Absolutely incredible.
— Dylan LeClair 🟠 (@DylanLeClair_) November 20, 2023
This is why people are already writing quasi-obituaries for OpenAI. As for Microsoft, Satya Nadella has truly positioned the tech behemoth as the apex predator of the AI world. It has almost unlimited coffers to attract the finest of talent, paired with the famous Sam Altman as the leader of its world-class AI unit.
Also, do note that much of the $13 billion that Microsoft invested in OpenAI was in the form of AI-related cloud computing purchases instead of cash. Consequently, Microsoft will likely not lose any sleep if OpenAI crumbles. It has already secured the face of AI in the form of Sam Altman, who can play a pivotal role in attracting eligible talent.
Now they will have to use Teams!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2023
We give the last word to Elon Musk who has jokingly noted that Sam Altman and some of the other giant names in the AI world would soon be using Microsoft's Teams app to communicate with each other. How the tables have turned!
