OpenAI’s new CEO is under fire over sexual tweets and views around pick-up artists as he joins the company amid its problems.
The departures of Sam Altman and Greg Brockman from OpenAI have been making headlines as the creators were ousted from their board. In response, 505 employees threatened to quit if Brockman and Altman weren’t reinstated and if the board didn’t resign.
In the interim, OpenAI needed a new CEO, and they landed with former Twitch CEO Emmet Shear. However, his hiring comes with its own baggage as their new CEO has a history of tweeting about peculiar topics for a business leader at his level.
As reported by Forbes, Shear has a history of engaging in discussions on non-consensual sexual fantasy statistics, sex and power, and discussing the controversial pickup artistry book, The Game.
Hmm. Maybe. But between 40-60% of women seem to have rape/non-consent fantasies. Why would you assume it’s not genuine sex fantasy for these girls? Or did I misunderstand and you agree it’s genuine fantasy, you’re just talking about the source of the fantasy? pic.twitter.com/gq0uN9hI9j
— Emmett Shear (@eshear) August 15, 2023
On his Twitter, he has talked at length about pick-up artistry, with a tweet from Shear reading, “Receiving attention from an attractive woman, even if ultimately the date goes nowhere, is generally positive utility for a man.”
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The tweet continues, “So there’s an asymmetric payoff for the date itself. Most women are interested ~only if it will lead to a relationship eventually. Men are more willing to match, more willing to go on first dates, more willing to have casual sex, etc. Because of the payoff matrix.”
In other tweets, Shear goes into lengthy discussions around non-consensual sex kinks women may have on Twitter, and other discussions surrounding pick-up artists and the book, The Game.
In his former role as Twitch’s CEO, Shear faced criticisms over his handling of sexual abuse allegations on the platform, with Twitch streamers alleging he had “laughed off” the claims. Shear would go on to publish a public letter about the allegations and pledging to do more to support women and communities of color.
As Shear comes into his role as interim CEO of OpenAI, its ex-CEO and Presidents have announced they had been hired by Microsoft to head up their new AI research unit. And the 505 employees who threatened to quit OpenAI are also threatening to join that unit.