Monday 20th November: OpenAI investors push for return of ousted CEO Sam Altman

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There’s just over two weeks to go until Mx3 AI; a live event in London from Media Voices and Media Makers Meet. We’ll be featuring sessions on AI in local, national, consumer and B2B media, as well as discussions on innovation, developments and regulation.

In a move that even ChatGPT couldn’t have hallucinated, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was fired by his own board on Friday. They said he had failed to be “candid in his communications”, possibly in reference to plans he had to launch a new AI hardware device with former Apple design chief Jony Ive.

Altman’s president Greg Brockman went with him shortly after the firing and there were rumours that other senior staff were headed for the door too. The turmoil at the company came as a complete surprise to Silicon Valley pundits that have spent the last 12 months explaining just how OpenAI was going to change the world.

But wait… it might still. In another shock move investors including Microsoft are angling for Altman’s return. According to the Wall Street Journal, Altman is considering a comeback but has told shareholders he wants a new board and governance structure as a precondition. I can’t wait for the Netflix Original!

We’re saddedned at the news of possible redundancies at The New Statesman. But, as reported by Charlotte Henry in The Addition, the threat of layoffs is also causing consternation among union members, unhappy at what they see as a lack of consultation. They are also angered by the fact that many of those at risk of redundancy have less than two years service and can expect to receive no redundancy payment. If this is how staff at a paper of the left are treated, heaven help everyone else.

OK who had ‘Antisemitic tweet finally kills X’ on their ‘Death of Twitter’ bingo card? Major advertisers including Disney, Apple, Paramount and Lionsgate have halted marketing on the dying platform after owner Elon Musk’s endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory. In a further wrinkle, X CEO Linda Yaccarino is under pressure from the ad industry to step down to show she is not endorsing Musk’s position.

This move by GB News will be fascinating to watch. Whatever you think of their amateur-hour approach to the news business, they have a solid audience and if they can convince them that taking a membership is taking a stand against the mainstream media wokerati, it could really pay off. Conversely, their core demographic doesn’t immediately strike me as your typical online subscriptions crew. Get the popcorn.

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