“I’ve known Sam for a long time.”
That was Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella last June, telling me the origin story of how his company came to strike an unorthodox deal with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to become the startup’s primary partner. We were chatting for a Fast Company’s cover story on Microsoft’s enviable position in AI: It was using OpenAI’s breakthroughs as the foundation for potentially transformative new features in products such as
Sam Altman, who has rapidly become a household name for his work on ChatGPT, was pushed out of OpenAI on Friday. But that doesn’t mean Altman is anywhere near out of the AI game: Reports are already emerging suggesting he’s got designs for a new venture.
Altman’s dismissal was a shocking move that’s likely going to have longterm repercussions for the company and the AI community at large. And it’s left many of us wondering what exactly happened.
There’s a theory going around about OpenAI’s mysterious firing of its high-profile CEO Sam Altman. In essence, the hypothesis is that Altman was pushing hard to commercialize OpenAI’s research without giving proper regard to managing the safety risks of the technology. But an internal memo from OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap to employees on Saturday seems to throw cold water on that idea.
“We can say definitively that the board’s decision was not made in
Before Friday, OpenAI seemed unstoppable.
Founded in 2015, OpenAI only became a household name in the past year or so following the release of its AI chatbot ChatGPT. If there was one company that explained the massive hype around AI it was OpenAI. Until Friday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman—who has been on countless magazine covers and had testified at length before global regulators—was the public face of the AI boom.
On Friday, all of that ended. OpenAI’s b
OpenAI’s Sam Altman was fired on Friday from his role as leader of the artificial intelligence company. Little is known about what led to the ouster. But one name keeps popping up as the company plots its next moves: Ilya Sutskever.
Altman reportedly was at odds with members of the board over how fast to develop the tech and ensure profits. Sutskever, the company’s chief scientist and cofounder (and board member), was on the other side of the “fault lines”
A report issued this week from New York City Comptroller Brad Lander found that Citi Bike faces “significant operational shortcomings” in the city, and determined that the problem is even worse in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. But Lyft, which owns the bikeshare platform, said the report was unfair in its analysis and contained several inaccuracies.
Citi Bike, which allows consumers to rent bikes for short periods of time, has grown in popularity in
Elon Musk seems to be everywhere, so why not on the big screen, too? That’s where audiences will find him, or at least a version of him, now that arthouse studio and critical hit maker A24 has acquired the film rights to adapt Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk biography, to be directed by auteur filmmaker Darren Aronofsky.
But critical and financially successful biopics are a rarity in Hollywood, and the Musk biopic poses arguably an even bigger risk. Not only is the tech bi
Sam Altman has been ousted as CEO of the world’s best-known artificial intelligence company, OpenAI. Altman has not only been the public face of OpenAI but also the face of the “AI boom” of the past year, which was born with the launch of ChatGPT last November. Altman’s departure comes with almost nothing that can be pointed to as pretext. And because OpenAI’s board of directors was very vague about its reason for firing Altman, a ton of questio
ChatGPT and Dall-E might get the lion’s share of the spotlight, but Mira Murati may be the real star of OpenAI.
Murati the chief technology officer at OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT—the most advanced AI chatbot ever to be deployed to a mass audience—and Fast Company’s Most Innovative Company of 2023. On November 17, she was named interim CEO after former CEO Sam Altman was pushed out of the company.
Earlier this year, Fast Company senior wri
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has been removed from his position and will leave the board of directors, following a review process that “concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board.”
Mira Murati, the company’s chief technology officer (whom Fast Company profiled in March 2023), will take over as interim CEO, effective immediately, the board said in a statement.
“Mr. Altmanȁ