Last week, the board of OpenAI dismissed CEO Sam Altman, citing an absence of confidence in his ability to remain at the helm. Emmett Shear, the prior CEO and co-founder of the live-streaming site Twitch, was appointed as interim CEO early Monday. CNBC outlines essential information about Altman's replacement.
Just days ago, Sam Altman's ousting from the OpenAI CEO role came as a shock — and now his replacement has been named. Emmett Shear, former co-founder and CEO of Twitch, announced on Monday that he had accepted the invitation to fill the top job of the leading AI company. Shear posted on X that after consulting with his family and reflecting for a few hours, he agreed to become OpenAI's interim CEO. Although the reasons for Altman leaving the company are unclear, some insiders had voiced their doubts about whether he was the right fit due to his involvement with Worldcoin, an eyeball-scanning tech company. This is believed to have been a distraction from his role at OpenAI, where he led the development of the popular ChatGPT generative AI chatbot.
Shear is a renowned figure in Silicon Valley, although unrecognized by many. Prior to 2007, he co-founded Twitch with Justin Kan, Michael Seibel, and Kyle Vogt and transformed it from a platform broadcasting Kan's life on a continual basis, into a global phenomenon.
In 2014, Amazon acquired Twitch for $1 billion, and Shear resigned as its CEO last year. During his tenure, the platform had difficulty placating streamers who felt their interests weren't being adequately defended and the company was locked in a tense duel with YouTube over talent, as the latter offered high-profile personalities attractive exclusive deals. After leaving Twitch, Shear joined Y Combinator as a partner; Altman had previously been president of it. Before he co-founded Twitch, he had worked on the Kiko Calendar app through Y Combinator’s program in 2005. In his X Monday post, Shear explained why he chose to take a job at OpenAI. Noting the arrival of his 9-month old son, he said he had been largely steering away from full-time employment, but he felt a responsibility to help OpenAI, which he described as “one of the most important companies currently in existence,” and hence decided to join.
Shear has been swiftly promoted to the CEO of OpenAI, an AI world leader renowned for their popular generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT. This technology is driven by the LLM (large language model), a model that processes and generates human language based on training from a massive amount of data. Shear's new role will likely present him with an abundance of regulatory pressure due to the risks AI brings to the table in terms of misinformation and job loss. In response to these issues, nations convened at a summit on AI safety earlier this month. High on the agenda of the discussion was the risk of AI to human life, with Altman himself warning of the potential for AI to eliminate humans despite his role in advancing the technology.
This headline has been updated to acknowledge the designation of Shear as interim CEO of OpenAI.
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