Stuff like this makes it seem like firing Sam Altman wasn't thought through. There have already been statements from Open AI that no malfeasance was involved. That makes giving Microsoft a surprise of this nature on a Friday afternoon look amateurish. There was no emergency. There was no damage to Open AI. In fact it seems like Open AI has been moving fast without breaking things.
I don't know enough about Sam Altman to have strong opinions about him, but, regardless of his qualities, the way this happened seems like a botch.
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Emily Chang from Bloomberg reports: Satya Nadella was "blindsided" and is furious. Details in paywalled article:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-18/openai-al...
Chang does not make it clear whether the source is close to Sam Altman.
Stuff like this makes it seem like firing Sam Altman wasn't thought through. There have already been statements from Open AI that no malfeasance was involved. That makes giving Microsoft a surprise of this nature on a Friday afternoon look amateurish. There was no emergency. There was no damage to Open AI. In fact it seems like Open AI has been moving fast without breaking things.
I don't know enough about Sam Altman to have strong opinions about him, but, regardless of his qualities, the way this happened seems like a botch.