Sam Altman joins Microsoft, three days after being fired as CEO of OpenAI

Fellow OpenAI co-founder, Greg Brockman also quit as company president after Altman was fired.

Bruce Whitfield speaks to Jan Vermeulen, Editor at Mybroadband.

It's been a dramatic past 48 hours in the world of artificial intelligence.

Sam Altman has joined U.S software giant Microsoft, less than three days after being ousted as CEO of OpenAI.

Fellow OpenAI co-founder, Greg Brockman also quit as company president after Altman was fired on Friday, in a major shakeup at the organisation.

OpenAI now faces a fight from within, as more than 500 of the roughly 700 staff have threatened to quit their jobs, following the hostile ouster of Altman.

There's huge opportunity for Microsoft here...If Microsoft manages to get the core people from OpenAI, and develop the technology in-house, well, then it gets the kitchen sink.
Jan Vermeulen, editor at Mybroadband

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

Altman is expected to head up innovation in the artificial intelligence space in his new job at Microsoft.

Microsoft recently announced major advances being developed by the company to improve its technology, including groundbreaking advances like partnerships with OpenAI and the integration of ChatGPT capabilities into its existing offerings.

Details of what led up to Altman’s firing have not been disclosed, with Brockman sharing a post to social media site X, what transpired in the lead up to Friday's shock move.

It could be devastating for OpenAI if they lose all their top people to Microsoft. It looks like Sam Altman and his crew that supported him are in the pound seats.
Jan Vermeulen, editor at Mybroadband

Sam and I are shocked and saddened by what the board did today.

Let us first say thank you to all the incredible people who we have worked with at OpenAI, our customers, our investors, and all of those who have been reaching out.

We too are still trying to figure out exactly…
' Greg Brockman (@gdb) November 18, 2023

We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners. We look forward to getting to know Emmett…
' Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) November 20, 2023

Microsoft and Altman hold the cards now. Essentially, if he wants to go back to OpenAI he can. If he wants to stay on at Microsoft he can. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
Jan Vermeulen, editor at Mybroadband

OpenAI is an American-based artificial intelligence (AI) research company, best known for creating the large language model-based chatbot, ChatGPT.

Former CEO of Amazon’s streaming service Twitch, Emmett Shear, will take over as interim CEO at OpenAI.

Today I got a call inviting me to consider a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: to become the interim CEO of @OpenAI. After consulting with my family and reflecting on it for just a few hours, I accepted. I had recently resigned from my role as CEO of Twitch due to the birth of my…
' Emmett Shear (@eshear) November 20, 2023

Owner of X (formerly known as Twitter), Elon Musk who once served alongside Altman as an initial board member at Open AI, also weighed in on the news of Altman's move to Microsoft.