A photo of me wearing a blue blazer and pocket square while on a horse, looking quite dapper.

David Celis

A cowboy coder.

Follow me

Links

Speaking of Anthropic…

OpenAI’s board of directors approached rival Anthropic’s CEO about replacing chief Sam Altman and potentially merging the two AI startups, according to two people briefed on the matter.

They even bring up that past failed ouster with different color:

The co-founders of Anthropic, who were also executives at OpenAI until 2020, had broken from their employer over disagreements regarding how to ensure AI’s safe development and governance.

OpenAI's board approached Anthropic CEO about top job and merger

OpenAI's board of directors approached rival Anthropic's CEO about replacing chief Sam Altman and potentially merging the two AI startups, according to two people briefed on the matter.

reuters.com

Here’s more history behind the OpenAI situation, but one thing in particular stuck out:

Mr. Sutskever’s frustration with Mr. Altman echoed what had happened in 2021 when another senior A.I. scientist left OpenAI to form the company Anthropic. That scientist and other researchers went to the board to try to push Mr. Altman out. After they failed, they gave up and departed, according to three people familiar with the attempt to push Mr. Altman out.

That’s new to me!

Before Altman’s Ouster, OpenAI’s Board Was Divided and Feuding

Sam Altman attacked a member over a research paper that discussed the company, while directors disagreed about who should fill board vacancies open for months.

nytimes.com

I’ve had a really hard time understanding the wild, whiplash-inducing ride over at OpenAI this past weekend. As much as Twitter sucked, I do miss how much easier it was for me to keep up with the news there. Thankfully, someone linked me to Ben Thompson’s post at Stratechery and it’s one of the best summaries/explainers of the OpenAI implosion that I’ve seen.

OpenAI’s Misalignment and Microsoft’s Gain

The end of a dramatic weekend in tech is that OpenAI has split and Microsoft is partnered with one and has hired the other; this is the ultimate failure case of what should have been a for-profit c…

stratechery.com