 "Who is new OpenAI CEO Emmett Shear? What happens to Mira Murati?")
OpenAI has a new CEO – and it’s not Sam Altman who was rumoured to return to the job over the weekend. Emmett Shear, who co-founded the streaming service Twitch, has been appointed the new CEO of Open AI. “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,” Shear wrote on X. Shear also denied that Altman, who has since been hired by Microsoft, had been dismissed over safety concerns. “Before I took the job, I checked on the reasoning behind the change. The board did *not* remove Sam over any specific disagreement on safety, their reasoning was completely different from that,” he wrote. “I’m not crazy enough to take this job without board support for commercializing our awesome models.” OpenAI kicked off the generative AI craze a year ago by releasing ChatGPT. The chatbot became one of the world’s fastest-growing software applications. But who is Shear? And what will happen to OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati who was appointed interim CEO on Friday? Let’s take a closer look: Shear was born in 1983, as per Moneycontrol. He grew up in Seattle and attended Yale University from which he obtained a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
Shear co-founded the platform in 2006 as Justin.TV.
The platform in 2011 changed its name to Twitch. The platform quickly gained traction in the gaming community and was acquired by Amazon for just under $1 billion in 2014. The 40-year-old Shear in March stepped down as Twitch CEO. Shear was at the Amazon-owned platform for more than 16 years. Shear has been working as a partner at Y Combinator for the last seven months, advising start-ups on everything from fundraising strategy to technical approach. Interestingly Y Combinator was previously run by Sam Altman.
As per Time Magazine, Shear is part of the effective altruism movement.
Adherents of effective altruism fear that Artificial Intelligence could be used to take over the world and destroy humanity. Shear was quoted as saying by The Wall Street Journal, “It’s like a universe destroying bomb…It’s bad in a way that makes global warming not a problem." It is no surprise that Shear is known as an outspoken advocate of safety in the development of artificial intelligence. Time Magazine quoted a source as saying that Shear was picked on the basis of his awareness of the possible danger from AI. He is thought to have the pedigree to lead a large team of engineers, the source added. Moneycontrol quoted Shear as saying in a recent podcast, “I have a very specific concern about AI. We’ve built an intelligence, it’s kind of amazing actually. It may not be the smartest intelligence but it is an intelligence. At some point, as it gets better, the kinds of problems that we’ll be able to solve will include programming, chip design, material science, all of the things you’d need to design an artificial intelligence.” “At that point, you’ll be able to point the thing we’ve built back at itself. And this will happen before you get to that point with humans in the loop; it already is happening with humans in the loop. But that loop will get tighter and faster until it can fully self-improve itself, at which point it will get very quickly. And that kind of intelligence is just an intrinsically very dangerous thing,” he added. In his LinkedIn recommendation, Twitch co-founder Justin Kan says, “Emmett is a great co-founder: works hard, doesn’t complain, and the smartest guy I know.” Shear on Monday shared a plan for the next steps at OpenAI, saying he would look to reform the start-up’s management team and hire an independent investigator to dig into Altman’s departure. An hour before Shear’s post, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed he was hiring Altman to lead an AI research team at the global tech titan. “We’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team. We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success,” Nadella said. “We look forward to getting to know Emmett Shear and OAI’s new leadership team and working with them,” Nadella added. What happens to Murati? Murati, meanwhile, has taken to X to voice her feelings – and perhaps foreshadow an imminent move.
The decision not to reinstate Altman as CEO of the company behind ChatGPT has confounded efforts by investors and employees of the firm to steady the ship by bringing him back after the board fired him on Friday, a surprise move that rocked the tech world. They fear his abrupt sacking could lead to a mass exodus of talent and impact an upcoming $86 billion share sale. Reuters earlier reported that Altman was discussing a possible return to OpenAI and changing the company’s governance structure, even as he considered launching a new AI venture. Altman posted an image of himself on X on Sunday wearing an OpenAI guest badge with the caption: “first and last time i ever wear one of these.”
In a separate post on X, he reshared Nadella’s message with a comment “the mission continues”.
Brockman quit over Altman’s firing on Friday. Their departures blindsided many employees who discovered the abrupt management change from an internal message and the company’s public blog. Some researchers including Szymon Sidor have also left the company following the CEO change, two people familiar with the matter said. Sidor confirmed quitting. The Information first reported the appointment of Shear as interim CEO. Shortly after the internal announcement of Shear’s appointment, distraught employees “streamed out” of OpenAI headquarters in San Francisco, The Information reported. Dozens of staffers internally announced they were quitting the company on Sunday night, it said, citing a person with knowledge of the situation. With inputs from agencies