Microsoft hires ex-OpenAI leaders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman to lead new AI team

Such a bizarre chain of events

He was fired due to some discrepancy. Nadella said directly that he didn't like it. And when he can't use his 49% to bring Altman back, he hires him himself.
Without sarcasm: that makes total sense to me.

Real bonehead move on behalf of the OpenAI board. The guy is emergency fired in what is basically a shock to everybody including him, then the company panics and realizes they just lost their star racehorse and starts talking about getting him back. It's fucking brain dead. When they fired him, he probably had a hundred job offers before he even made it down to the lobby. Even if whatever he did is truly awful, any company with AI ambitions would kill to have him on their payroll.

MS did well executing quickly here. They took a perfect opportunity to onboard an experienced AI team for pennies vs. what buying the rest of OpenAI would cost. And whatever Sam and his team build next is going to be 100% theirs. Wouldn't be surprised if there's an open job offer for OpenAI employees looking to follow Altman, with the promise of essentially unlimited resources to develop whatever and respect from management. For a talented AI researcher that's a tempting offer.

It will also be interesting to see if Altman ends up demonstrating the dishonest behavior at Microsoft that he's been accused of at OpenAI, with the former inheriting the mess that those who expelled him from the latter were hoping to avoid. His reputation and other endeavors, especially WorldCoin, don't really give me much confidence in him, personally.
- I like your take. Altman is a Valley hustler, albeit a talented one who ran YC. But, he’s not technologist or a theorist, and I suspect he’s not that interested in attempting to de-risk AGI anymore, particularly now that he’s experienced the market hype. The staff who want to be billionaires clotted to him; the staff who are committed to the original ethical vision stuck with Ilya.

So Microsoft is going to compete with themselves? (Microsoft owns 49% of openai)

"I play both sides so I always come out ahead"
Sam probably still controls a ton of shares, so I think effectively this would give them >50% of shares as long as they are partnering.
Back both horses and drop the one that loses the race.
- The thing is that there many many horses in this race
Watch them flat out buy OpenAI then just reinstate these guys.
- If OpenAI wanted to sell out, they wouldn't have fired Altman
- They’re only 2% short of being able to do that. I think Microsoft has a 49% stake.
- As much as I'd love to see them back in OpenAI, I don't think Emmett Shear will give up.
  I have a soft spot for Greg since he was the one who introduced the world to GPT 4 on that developer livestream
Same jacket, different pocket
@silencioso competing with themselves isn't that weird, for example Pfizer makes both Viagra and its generic competitor Avigra.
- That's got to be the lowest effort generic name in existence. "Ah just shift one of the letters to the start and let's knock off early"
- Just like cereal companies with name brands like fruit loops will make fruit spins. Why not take profit on the lower end of the market?

Isn't this effectively an acquihire for $0

Pretty sure Sam and Greg got A LOT of money to get „convinced“ to start at Microsoft
- Even if you start dreaming up ludicrous salaries/options, the cost to hire them would be only a fraction of the hit Microsoft would take in the market if not for this play. Satya could comfortably let them name their price and say yes to anything.
  This hand was played well by Satya.
- Truth. Though, OpenAI was valued around 80 billion, I'd be reasonably surprised if either of them was being offered a billion.

He would join Microsoft. So much for making AI to benefit humanity.

This guy is a former (and current) crypto bro who just pivoted to the next tech buzzword. This shit was never gonna be a benefit to humanity.
- Yeah, that’s some next level naïveté thinking Silicon Valley gives any fucks about anything other than number-go-up. Yikes.
  The advent of AI feels more like the beginning of what will probably end in revolution… The bloody kind. They’re going to replace as many humans as they possibly can until the masses get hungry enough to finally eat the rich.

I dont understand why these guys taking another 9-5 job. They already have all the money in the world. Just go travel, enjoy life but no these guys want to be bound by a clock and a manager. Lol

Some people just want power and recognition which you don't get if you just travel and enjoy life.
I could also so it being pretty exciting being at the forefront of a new technology and wanting to put all the things you've learned or been researching to use vs just quitting and feeling like you're wasting that time you've put in. Probably doesn't feel like a job if this is the case.
- Yea I know a guy at work, he been here from past 18 years. He starts at 7:30am and finishes after 6pm. At first I thought may be he's working but now its been more than 1year. He genuinely enjoys sitting in the office. Poor fella is divorced and have no friends but enjoys the little power of position he has at work. Lol
Being a CEO for a company like this isn't being "bound" to "the clock" of a "9 to 5 job." It's a lifestyle choice for sure, and an aspiration for an even greater lifestyle. But they aren't bound.
- CEO has to report to the board. So technically "board" is the manager.
  Also in Sam Altmans case , he joined Microsoft so now he is more like "manager" who report to the director and director reports to CEO. Lol the pyramid sounds not so fun.
Some people, me included, really love our work. It isn’t related to power (for me), just pure enjoyment.
- What kind of work do you do?

Microsoft slept on phones and tablets, they are not sleeping on AI. And good! Software has always been Microsoft's superpower.

gets the popcorn

Well, good for them. Jury’s out on if that’s good for us regular schmucks
Software has always been Microsoft's superpower
You mean buying software, right?
- Selling software.

OpenAI shot themselves in the legs with a 12-gauge shotgun when they fired Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.

Expect Microsoft Copilot to eclipse ChatGPT.

They were right, he never opened the technology.
The Board though is unlikely to face any personal consequences though. 3 out of the 4 of them are CEOs of their own companies, with the fourth being OpenAI's chief scientist.
Regardless, this move will very much tank OpenAI since now the advantage is in Microsoft's court.
- I see this a lot, but two people, especially those not doing the work, do not make a company. They started something great, but hundreds of talented people have been driving the ship for a long time now.
- Which way did the scientist vote?
Doubt it very much. Alt-man is just a grifter and the limits have been reached for the word predictor. The only thing Microsoft has been doing is hype and pissing off customers with it.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Microsoft has hired OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman to head up a “new advanced AI research team,” the software conglomerate’s chief Satya Nadella said Monday, capping three days of intense discussions following the unexpected decision by OpenAI’s board to dismiss Altman.

Nadella said Altman and Brockman will be joined by “colleagues,” suggesting that Microsoft is also hiring many other people who left OpenAI over the weekend.

“We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success,” said Nadella, in what many tech entrepreneurs labelled as an example of “incredible execution.”

Nadella, whose firm has invested over $10 billion in OpenAI and acquired almost 50% ownership, said the Windows-maker remains committed to the startup.

The decision comes after a tumultuous weekend that saw Altman removed from his role at OpenAI by the organization’s board on Friday.

“The board had a chance to explain their drastic actions and they did not take it,” wrote Andrej Karpathy, a research scientist at OpenAI, on X.

The original article contains 387 words, the summary contains 169 words. Saved 56%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Plot thickens

Didn't take long for Sam. Huh.

Good to know Microsoft has no qualms with hiring someone being accused of raping their own sister..

Capitalism - no morals, only profit!

Was he convicted? Accusations are free to make
- They are, yet less than 2% of accusations are actually false, so piss off with the "only accusations" bullshit as if it isn't at least a massive red banner of a flag.
could you elaborate on that?
- Regarding the alleged rape, in short: The sexual acts are not even explicitly stated and allegedly occurred when she was young enough to barely be able to remember or understand anything, she went decades without saying a word to anyone about it. Then they have a dispute over an inheritance, and a couple of years later when he becomes famous she publicly accuses him, without providing evidence or reporting him to the courts.
- You could just as easily look it up yourself, and I hate to link xitter, but here's her post:
  https://twitter.com/xriskology/status/1710008424178581553?lang=en-GB
When you don't have the means to innovate, this sort of thing is what you do.