Sacked OpenAI boss Sam Altman to join Microsoft - BBC News

3 years ago by fne8w2ah to c/technology

The artificial intelligence pioneer takes up a job with the tech giant days after he was fired by OpenAI.
Hubi 18 points 3 years ago

There go my hopes and dreams of the whole situation ending up being a good thing for open source and the competition in the AI space.

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TheGrandNagus 21 points 3 years ago

Lmao. Microsoft was never going to let that happen.

They looked at the mobile market and see they fucked up, they looked at the browser market and see they fucked up, they look at Google's online presence and see they fucked up, etc.

Sure, their enterprise sector is doing amazing, but they'll want to diversify and maintain a strong public presence for general consumers.

Microsoft saw "Open"AI and started salivating. As far as they're concerned, this is their chance to win big, and they want to control it with an iron grip.

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cosmic_slate 5 points 3 years ago
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burliman 3 points 3 years ago

Still could be. Something smells off with this whole thing.

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Espiritdescali 11 points 3 years ago

Is this embrace or extend? I'm not looking forward to extinguish.

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SnipingNinja 4 points 3 years ago

This is extend, embrace would be when they invested in OpenAI as a way to fund them.

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lobut 1 point 3 years ago
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Melatonin 2 points 3 years ago

Isn't Bing in some kind of partnership with Open AI?

Hmmm.

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guitarsarereal 10 points 3 years ago
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SnipingNinja 2 points 3 years ago

That's treating him like an idiot, he might know what Microsoft is thinking and maybe he has no problem going along with it

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guitarsarereal 2 points 3 years ago
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ours 4 points 3 years ago

It does and Microsoft poured a ton of money into OpenAI. Including offering some of their services exclusively via Azure.

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SnipingNinja 1 point 3 years ago

From what I've read they didn't pour any money directly, it's all in the form of credit to use azure

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ours 1 point 3 years ago

Microsoft owns 49% of the for-profit operating company. Maybe they got those or part of those via Azure credits?

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SnipingNinja 2 points 3 years ago

That's exactly what I read

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BetaDoggo_ 3 points 3 years ago

As far as we know Microsoft has access to some of their IP but not much else. Judging by the output of their own research division they're anxious to replace them.

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ijeff 2 points 3 years ago

They have access to the IP and own the compute resources running OpenAI's services.

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autotldr 1 point 3 years ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Sam Altman is joining Microsoft, the tech-giant has announced, ending speculation he might return to OpenAI just 48 hours after his chaotic ousting.

He is considered one of the most influential figures in the fast-growing generative artificial intelligence (AI) space, and his sacking sent shockwaves across the industry.

It sparked an outpouring of support from Silicon Valley bosses, including former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt who called Mr Altman "a hero of mine" and said that he had "changed our collective world forever".

On Friday, when OpenAI announced it was firing Mr Altman, it accused him of not being "consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities".

On Sunday evening, the board said it "firmly stands by its decision as the only path to advance and defend the mission of OpenAI," according to an internal memo, seen by The New York Times.

Mr Altman testified before a US Congressional hearing to discuss the opportunities and risks created by the new technology and also appeared at the world's first AI Safety Summit in the UK at the beginning of November.


The original article contains 685 words, the summary contains 186 words. Saved 73%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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onestop -5 points 3 years ago

i think this is all fake to save face by everyone doing AI, if the AI boss is down people will stop investing in AI, and bigtech doesn’t want that, IMO. Right here Microsoft came to save the day but they pretty much saved the whole AI industry.

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WhatAmLemmy 13 points 3 years ago

Nah. The greatest benefit to Microsoft here is now no competitors can hire him.

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TheDarkKnight 4 points 3 years ago

I am cautious to think he’s all that innovative, but rather was the figurehead. He might be able to poach the innovators though.

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WhatAmLemmy 1 point 3 years ago

Yeah I doubt he was magic on his own, but if a competitor hired him he would utilise his insider OpenAI knowledge to make day to day decisions that might help a competitor close the gap or supersede OpenAI. Better to pay him millions of dollars a year to keep that knowledge in house and deprive competitors of the opportunity.

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bernieecclestoned 7 points 3 years ago

Doubt

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onestop -1 points 3 years ago

ok 🀷 i did write IMO

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KRAW 6 points 3 years ago

they pretty much saved the whole AI industry

Sam Altman could've vanished from the face of the Earth, and AI would be fine. There are so many big players (including Microsoft) in the game and so many other AI researchers that things would've likely continued going strong.

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