Inside the OpenAI Meltdown

Plain English with Derek Thompson

The Ringer

News Commentary, News

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2023

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today’s episode is about whatever the hell just happened—is still happening—at OpenAI, where CEO Sam Altman has been fired, almost rehired, and then shipped off to Microsoft, while the most famous startup in artificial intelligence self-immolates for reasons that the company refuses to explain. Our panel has some theories. Charlie Warzel is a staff writer at The Atlantic who has been texting and talking with OpenAI employees for the last few days. Karen Hao is a contributing writer at The Atlantic who is writing a book about OpenAI and knows many of the main characters from this past weekend. Ross Andersen is a staff writer at The Atlantic who wrote a big magazine feature on Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the messy quest to build artificial general intelligence. If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected]. Host: Derek Thompson Guests: Ross Andersen, Karen Hao & Charlie Warzel Producer: Devon Manze Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What would you do if everyone said they heard your trailer a hundred times?
0:05.2	You'd probably make a new one. I'm Justin Sales, the host of The Wedding
0:10.5	Scammer, the ringer's first ever true crime pod. We've been hunting a con man for a few weeks now and our
0:16.4	hunt is coming to an end. Schemes, heartbreak, how to put on a wire. We've covered all this
0:22.1	and more,
0:23.0	but there are still a few surprises left.
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0:30.0	Well, you knew this one was coming. Today's episode is about whatever the hell just happened, slash is still happening, at Open
0:37.6	AI, where CEO Sam Altman has been fired, then almost rehired, then shipped off to Microsoft, while the most
0:45.3	famous startup in artificial intelligence self-immolates, for reasons that nobody can
0:50.9	explain.
0:56.0	The story, by the way, seems to change every 90 minutes or so, so I'm going to start us off with the acknowledgement
0:58.0	that I am recording this open at 4.22 PM ET on Monday. So first a quick recap of the last 90 to 100 hours.
1:09.9	On Friday afternoon open AI fired its chief executive Sam Altman, accusing him of, quote,
1:15.6	not being consistently candid with the board of directors. Altman was fired without warning
1:20.9	over Google Meet with four of the six members of his
1:24.3	nonprofit board of directors voting to oust him. Much much more on that board of
1:28.8	directors and corporate structure in a second. On Sunday, this weekend at the urging of Microsoft, an investor,
1:35.5	open AI invites Sam Altman back to the office to discuss the prospect of rehiring him as CEO,
1:41.6	only to say a few hours later,
1:43.4	nope, never mind, we don't want you back,
1:45.4	and instead the interim chief executive
	...

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