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Sam Altman is going to Microsoft. The move caps a weekend of drama for Altman, who had been the CEO and public face of OpenAI, the San Francisco-based generative artificial intelligence startup known for creating ChatGPT.
At around noon Pacific time on Friday, Altman was informed that he was being let go from OpenAI, the company he co-founded in 2015. Colleagues took to X to express their disappointment and Greg Brockman, the company's president and co-founder, quit in protest. Although Altman at one point appeared to be in talks to return, late Sunday night, news broke he would be going to Microsoft instead.
"We're extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote on X.
New York University professor of technology, operations, and statistics Vasant Dhar told Yahoo Finance Altman's hiring was "a brilliant move by Microsoft." Dhar said he expects a significant amount of OpenAI's brainpower and intellectual property to move over to the Redmond, Washington-based software giant.
More than 500 employees signed a letter calling on the board to resign over their handling of Altman's departure and threatening to quit themselves. Among those who signed the letter were Mira Murati, who had been named interim CEO on Friday, only to have the title rescinded. Today, a new interim CEO was announced: Emmett Shear, the former CEO and co-founder of Twitch and onetime partner at Y Combinator, the startup accelerator Altman once ran.
Throughout his career, Altman has proved adept at garnering media attention and raising large sums of money. He embraced his role as the public face of OpenAI, hosting the company's first developers day on November 6, during which Nadella joined him onstage.
Altman's surprise ouster was reportedly caused by questions about the pace of OpenAI's growth and internal tensions about how quickly to release new products. The terse statement from the board on Friday afternoon said that Altman was "not consistently candid in his communications with the board." Outside of OpenAI, Altman is a co-founder of Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency startup intended to provide a universal basic income. He was also reportedly raising money for an A.I. chip startup and working on a hardware project with former Apple designer Jony Ive.
Microsoft had previously been a key partner with and had invested over $13 billion in OpenAI. On X, Nadella said that his company remains "committed to our partnership" with OpenAI. According to the protest letter from OpenAI employees, Microsoft has "assured" them there are open positions at the company for anyone who wants to join.
"AI is very much at the center of Microsoft's strategy," Visible Alpha analyst Melissa Otto told CNBC, noting that artificial intelligence is being integrated into many of the company's flagship tools. Other tech giants including Google and Meta have also devoted serious resources to developing A.I. products. "In the near term, one of the concerns is ... what do their competitors do?" she said. Other open questions are to what extent Microsoft will embrace open-source software for its future A.I. projects and what sort of safety guardrails Microsoft will put on future A.I. projects.
Still, the hiring is a "huge coup" for Microsoft, RBC Capital Markets analyst Rishi Jaluria told Yahoo Finance. Microsoft has deep pockets to fund A.I. research, and this move will probably accelerate the pace at which the company develops new products. It also makes Microsoft a "destination employer" for generative A.I. engineers, Jaluria said.
Investors have reacted positively to the news. On Friday, as news of Altman's departure came out, Microsoft's stock fell 1.7 percent. Today, the stock recovered and hit an all-time high.
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Microsoft Just Hired OpenAI Co-Founder Sam Altman. What's Next?
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21.11.2023
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Sam Altman is going to Microsoft. The move caps a weekend of drama for Altman, who had been the CEO and public face of OpenAI, the San Francisco-based generative artificial intelligence startup known for creating ChatGPT.
At around noon Pacific time on Friday, Altman was informed that he was being let go from OpenAI, the company he co-founded in 2015. Colleagues took to X to express their disappointment and Greg Brockman, the company's president and co-founder, quit in protest. Although Altman at one point appeared to be in talks to return, late Sunday night,........
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