Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, OpenAI co-founders, join Microsoft to lead new AI team
In a move being termed by many in the industry as somewhat of a ‘boss move’, Microsoft has swiftly moved in to snap up OpenAI’s ousted CEO Sam Altman and resigned co-founder Greg Brockman to lead a new, internal AI team. “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.”, said Nadella’s post on X.
Elon Musk’s reaction to the post, pretty much summed up the wider tech reactions and Nadella’s known penchant for such super swift strategic moves.
Wild times
Satya ftw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2023
This could be the perfect climactic conclusion to a surprising, ‘Succession’ like saga that evolved at OpenAI last week. It started with sudden ousting of Sam Altman by the board of the fast-moving AI company, on grounds lack of confidence by the board in Altman’s leadership. You can read more about how the entire saga has unfolded so far, in our detailed piece here.
Meanwhile, Brockman gave out further details as to who else will be joining in. The list includes top names from OpenAI, Szymon Sidor, Jakub Pachocki, Aleksander Madry, all of whom had left the company in protest over Altman’s firing. Mira Murati, the former CTO and current interim CEO, is missing from the list.
Nadella further mentioned, that Microsoft will still continue to work with OpenAI, and obviously so, considering the company has invested billions in the AI upstart founded by Altman, Brockman and Murati. “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 Shear and OAI’s new leadership team and working with them.”, said Nadella.
