This week, we look back at the drama at OpenAI and look forward to the growing A.I. Arms Race. Plus, we talk about calendaring — again!
Watch the YouTube Live Recording of Episode (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIxu1D6pfG0) 444 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIxu1D6pfG0)
Runner-up Titles
A.I. Arms Race
Table 4 needs pork chops
Run with that
Thanks for not saving us from the AI
The King of Cameos
Rebels going to rebel
Ivory Tower Scruples
The sign of something
Rundown
OpenAI
Sam Altman Out At OpenAI (https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2023/11/17/sam-altman-out-at-openai/)
A statement from Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella (https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/11/17/a-statement-from-microsoft-chairman-and-ceo-satya-nadella/)
OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman is leaving, too (https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/17/23966277/openai-co-founder-greg-brockman-leaving)
Emergency Pod: Sam Altman is Out at Open AI — Hard Fork (https://overcast.fm/+m_rrMb92o)
Greg Brockman quits OpenAI after abrupt firing of Sam Altman | TechCrunch (https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/17/greg-brockman-quits-openai-after-abrupt-firing-of-sam-altman)
Breaking: OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO (https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/18/23967199/breaking-openai-board-in-discussions-with-sam-altman-to-return-as-ceo)
OpenAI Investors Plot Last-Minute Push With Microsoft To Reinstate Sam Altman As CEO (https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/11/18/openai-investors-scramble-to-reinstate-sam-altman-as-ceo/?sh=18e676bd60da)
Microsoft hires former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/20/23968829/microsoft-hires-sam-altman-greg-brockman-employees-openai)
OpenAI board names a new interim CEO — and it's not Sam Altman (https://www.axios.com/2023/11/20/sam-altman-openai-board-emmet-shear)
Who Controls OpenAI? (https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-11-20/who-controls-openai?srnd=undefined)
Inside the OpenAI Meltdown — Plain English with Derek Thompson (https://overcast.fm/+1LedZQwsE)
The AI industry turns against its favorite philosophy | Semafor (https://www.semafor.com/article/11/21/2023/how-effective-altruism-led-to-a-crisis-at-openai)
Sam Altman to return as CEO of OpenAI (https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/22/23967223/sam-altman-returns-ceo-open-ai)
Read Microsoft’s internal memos about the chaos at OpenAI (https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/22/23972572/microsoft-internal-memo-kevin-scott-openai)
Thrive-Led OpenAI Tender to Continue After Altman Returns (https://www.theinformation.com/articles/thrive-led-openai-tender-to-continue-after-altman-returns)
Amazon’s Q has ‘severe hallucinations’ and leaks confidential data in public preview, employees warn (https://open.substack.com/pub/platformer/p/amazons-q-has-severe-hallucinations?r=2l9&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post)
A.I. Arms Race
Inside the A.I. Arms Race That Changed Silicon Valley Forever (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/05/technology/ai-chatgpt-google-meta.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare)
Introducing Gemini: our largest and most capable AI model (https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-gemini-ai/)
Google unveils Gemini (https://www.platformer.news/p/google-unveils-gemini?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=7976&post_id=139438103&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=2l9&utm_medium=email)
Thomas Kurian On Google Cloud’s AI Differentiators Vs. Rivals AWS, Microsoft (https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/thomas-kurian-on-google-cloud-s-ai-differentiators-vs-rivals-aws-microsoft?itc=refresh)
Amazon’s Q has ‘severe hallucinations’ and leaks confidential data in public preview, employees warn (https://www.platformer.news/p/amazons-q-has-severe-hallucinations)
Confident about safety of AI: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67633980)
OpenAI Agreed to Buy $51 Million of AI Chips From a Startup Backed by CEO Sam Altman (https://www.wired.com/story/openai-buy-ai-chips-startup-sam-altman/)
Relevant to Your Interests
Unhinged Elon Musk Tells Advertisers: 'Go F-ck Yourself' (https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/elon-musk-twitter-advertisers-bob-iger-new-york-times-dealbook-summit-1234905549/)
Looking Good, Elon! Feeling Good, Trashcan Man! | Defector (https://defector.com/looking-good-elon-feeling-good-trashcan-man)
New myApplications in the AWS Management Console simplifies managing your application resources (https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-myapplications-in-the-aws-management-console-simplifies-managing-your-application-resources/)
Amazon CloudWatch Application Signals for automatic instrumentation of your applications (preview) (https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-application-signals-for-automatic-instrumentation-of-your-applications-preview/)
Okta admits hackers accessed data on all customers during recent breach (https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/29/okta-admits-hackers-accessed-data-on-all-customers-during-recent-breach/)
"We have no plans to bring Xbox Game Pass to PlayStation or Nintendo." Xbox CEO Phil Spencer on console hardware, the future of Activision-Blizzard, and much more (https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/phil-spencer-jez-corden-xbox-interview-2023)
534 startups have failed so far in 2023 (https://fortune.com/2023/11/30/startup-funding-bankruptcies-lower-valuations-2023/)
Why We're Dropping Basecamp - Duke University Libraries Blogs (https://blogs.library.duke.edu/blog/2023/11/30/why-were-dropping-basecamp/)
Broadcom CEO tells VMWare workers to 'get butt back to office' after completing a $69 billion merger of the two companies (https://fortune.com/2023/12/02/broadcom-ceo-orders-employees-get-butt-back-office-vmware-remote-work/)
Spotify to lay off 17 percent of its workforce in latest round of job cuts (https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/4/23987335/spotify-layoffs-17-percent-profitability-cost-cutting)
'Return to Office' declared dead (https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/03/return_to_office/)
Apple TV+ and Paramount+ May Soon Bundle Streaming Services (https://gizmodo.com/apple-tv-paramount-streaming-bundle-might-be-coming-1851065662)
US Commerce Secretary Says Any AI Chips Designed To Circumvent Restrictions On China Will Be Banned The Very Next Day (https://wccftech.com/us-secretary-ai-chips-designed-to-circumvent-china-restrictions-banned-very-next-day/)
Twilio to cut about 5% of total workforce (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/twilio-cut-5-total-workforce-144822744.html)
Honey, I shrunk the telemetry - bitdrift Blog (https://blog.bitdrift.io/post/honey-i-shrunk-the-telemetry)
GitLab shares soar as developer-tools company posts first adjusted operating profit (https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/04/gitlab-gtlb-q3-earnings-report-2024.html)
It’s All Bullshit | JS Tan (https://thebaffler.com/latest/its-all-bullshit-tan)
IDC’s first Software Supply Chain Security Market Glance (https://x.com/katiednorton1/status/1668611154338349057?s=46&t=zgzybiDdIcGuQ_7WuoOX0A)
Meta Sees Little Risk in RISC-V Custom Accelerators (https://www.nextplatform.com/2023/12/01/meta-sees-little-risk-in-risc-v-with-custom-accelerators/?td=rt-3a)
AWS exec: Our understanding of open source is changing (https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/david_nalley_interview/)
Nonsense
Apple and Spotify have revealed their top podcasts of 2023. Here is what they do — and don’t — tell us. (https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/29/23981468/apple-replay-spotify-wrapped-podcasts-rogan-crime-junkie-alex-cooper)
The Clock of the Long Now (https://longnow.org/clock/)
Conferences
Jan 29, 2024 to Feb 1, 2024 That Conference Texas (https://that.us/events/tx/2024/schedule/)
SCaLE 21x, March 14th to 17th, 2024 (https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/21x)
If you want your conference mentioned, let’s talk media sponsorships.
SDT news & hype
Join us in Slack (http://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com/slack).
Get a SDT Sticker! Send your postal address to stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com) and we will send you free laptop stickers!
Follow us: Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/sdtpodcast), Twitter (https://twitter.com/softwaredeftalk), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/softwaredefinedtalk/), Mastodon (https://hachyderm.io/@softwaredefinedtalk), BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/softwaredefinedtalk.com), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/software-defined-talk/), TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@softwaredefinedtalk), Threads (https://www.threads.net/@softwaredefinedtalk) and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi3OJPV6h9tp-hbsGBLGsDQ/featured).
Use the code SDT to get $20 off Coté’s book, Digital WTF (https://leanpub.com/digitalwtf/c/sdt), so $5 total.
Become a sponsor of Software Defined Talk (https://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com/ads)!
Recommendations
Brandon: Bookings with me in Outlook (https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/bookings-with-me-setup-and-sharing-ad2e28c4-4abd-45c7-9439-27a789d254a2)
Matt: ortho-k (https://www.aao.org/eye-health/glasses-contacts/what-is-orthokeratology)
Coté: Descript (https://www.descript.com/) (for finding social clips (https://www.descript.com/ai-actions/find-good-clips)), GMail, D&D in ChatGPT (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVO55dxt7lE)
Photo Credits
Header (https://unsplash.com/photos/grayscale-photo-of-people-during-marathon-ttbCwN_mWic)
Artwork (https://unsplash.com/photos/a-tall-building-with-a-neon-cube-on-top-of-it-dZyNWIzog-w)