After a weekend of turmoil for OpenAI, the company has found its new CEO in the ex-Twitch CEO, Emmett Shear.
Sam Altman was fired from OpenAI over the weekend, with the company claiming communication between the board and Altman hadn’t been clear enough. Altman, and now ex-president of OpenAI, Greg Brockman, have both been hired by Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest investor.
Emmett Shear, the ex-Twitch CEO is now being inserted into the role, after reports that OpenAI was considering rehiring Altman. Shear worked at Twitch from 2007, when it was known as Justin.tv, until 2023, when he left the company.
During his tenure, he oversaw the spinning of Justin.tv into Twitch, Justin.tv’s eventual closure, and the enormous rise in popularity of video game streams. He also oversaw the eventual sale to Amazon, where the company sold for $970 million.
Outside of Twitch, Shear is known for his philanthropy and consulting with new startups. He was succeeded by Dan Clancy.
Shear will be succeeding Altman, but also Mira Murati, the interim CEO. OpenAI has now had three CEOs in a matter of days, with Shear now firmly embedded in the role.
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. I had recently resigned from my role as CEO of Twitch due to the birth of my…
— Emmett Shear (@eshear) November 20, 2023
On Twitter/X, Shear posted a message explaining his thought process. He also elaborates on his first acts as CEO, stating:
“I have a three point plan for the next 30 days:
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“- Hire an independent investigator to dig into the entire process leading up to this point and generate a full report.
“- Continue to speak to as many of our employees, partners, investors, and customers as possible, take good notes, and share the key takeaways.
“- Reform the management and leadership team in light of recent departures into an effective force to drive results for our customers.”
OpenAI hires ex-Twitch CEO Emmett Shear to replace Sam Altman
OpenAI rose to prominence this year after the launch of its AI chatbot, ChatGPT. Altman recently announced new features and updates coming to the ChatGPT line, as well as its other software.
However, not everything has gone to plan over the last few months. Behind the scenes, Microsoft and OpenAI have reportedly butted heads. Meanwhile, Microsoft has apparently only invested a “fraction” of the $10 billion reported.
While public use of AI programs has decreased over the last few months, the industry is still barrelling towards it. Microsoft has effectively integrated AI into almost every software package it provides, including Windows 11. Meanwhile, Nvidia became valued at a trillion dollars thanks to its hardware push in providing chips for the booming industry.