Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More
In a shocking development that further destabilizes one of artificial intelligence’s most prominent companies, OpenAI‘s Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati announced her resignation on Wednesday.
This unexpected exit marks the latest in a series of high-profile departures from the AI powerhouse, signaling deepening turmoil within an organization that was riding high just months ago.
Credit: x
Murati, who joined OpenAI in 2018 and rose to become CTO in 2022, played a pivotal role in developing the company’s groundbreaking AI models, including GPT-3 and ChatGPT. Her departure comes on the heels of other key executives leaving the company, including co-founder John Schulman and former president Greg Brockman.
In her memo to staff, Murati expressed gratitude for her time at OpenAI, highlighting the company’s achievements in advancing AI technology. She wrote, “Our recent releases of speech-to-speech and OpenAI o1 mark the beginning of a new era in interaction and intelligence — achievements made possible by your ingenuity and craftsmanship.”
Advertisement
OpenAI’s brain drain: How the AI giant’s talent exodus threatens its dominance
However, the timing of Murati’s exit raises questions about the internal stability of OpenAI and coincides with significant structural changes within the organization. According to a recent Reuters report, OpenAI is working on a plan to restructure its core business into a for-profit benefit corporation that will no longer be controlled by its non-profit board. This move, if implemented, would fundamentally alter the company’s governance structure and potentially its mission focus.
The company has been grappling with leadership challenges and strategic uncertainties since a tumultuous boardroom coup in Nov. 2023 that briefly ousted CEO Sam Altman. While Altman was quickly reinstated, the incident exposed deep rifts within the organization’s leadership and vision. Now, with the proposed restructuring, Altman stands to receive equity in the for-profit entity for the first time, a development that could significantly increase his influence and stake in the company’s future direction.
Industry analysts suggest that Murati’s departure may be linked to ongoing disagreements over OpenAI’s direction, particularly in light of these potential structural changes. The company has faced criticism for allegedly prioritizing commercial interests over its original mission of ensuring artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits humanity as a whole. The move towards a for-profit structure could further fuel these concerns.
Altman’s response to Murati’s departure on social media offers additional insight into the situation. His tweet, while expressing gratitude, also hints at a predetermined transition plan, stating, “We’ll say more about the transition plans soon.”
Advertisement
This suggests that Murati’s exit may have been anticipated and potentially part of a larger reorganization strategy. Altman’s measured response and mention of future announcements indicate he is carefully managing the narrative around these leadership changes.
Credit: x
From ChatGPT to chaos: Unraveling OpenAI’s fall from grace in the AI arms race
OpenAI’s struggles come at a critical juncture for the AI industry. Rivals like Google, with its recently released Gemini models, and Meta, with its brand new open-source Llama 3.2 models, are rapidly closing the gap in AI capabilities. Smaller, nimble competitors such as Anthropic and Mistral are also making significant strides, challenging OpenAI’s dominance.
The company’s internal turmoil is set against a backdrop of broader challenges facing the AI sector. Regulatory scrutiny is intensifying globally, with lawmakers and policymakers grappling with the ethical implications and potential risks of advanced AI systems. OpenAI’s leadership instability could potentially hamper its ability to navigate these complex regulatory waters effectively.
Additionally, the company faces a lawsuit from Elon Musk, one of its co-founders, accusing OpenAI of betraying its original nonprofit mission. This legal battle adds another layer of complexity to the company’s already turbulent situation.
Silicon Valley’s AI shakeup: How OpenAI’s turmoil is reshaping the tech landscape
The reverberations of this shakeup extend far beyond OpenAI’s glass-walled boardrooms. In an era where AI is the new electricity, powering everything from your smartphone’s autocorrect to Wall Street’s trading algorithms, OpenAI’s next move could ripple through the entire tech ecosystem. Competitors are watching with bated breath, wondering if this is their chance to leapfrog ahead in the race to artificial general intelligence.
Advertisement
As OpenAI navigates these choppy waters, the tech world is collectively holding its breath. Will this be the company’s “Intel moment,” cementing its dominance in the AI chip race, or its “Netscape moment,” marking the beginning of the end? The answer could shape not just the future of AI, but the very fabric of our increasingly digital society.
One thing’s for certain: in the high-stakes poker game of Silicon Valley, OpenAI just went all-in. And as the cards fall, we’re all about to find out whether they’re holding a royal flush or a spectacular bluff. Stay tuned, tech aficionados—this is one disruption you won’t want to miss.
VB Daily
Stay in the know! Get the latest news in your inbox daily
Apple is preparing to take a fresh run at the smart home that starts with a rumored smart display that it may release next year. That’s according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who writes in his Power On newsletter today that the display will use a new operating system, called homeOS, that’s based on the Apple TV’s tvOS (much like the software that drives HomePods now.)
Gurman reports that the display will run Apple apps like Calendar, Notes, and Home, and that Apple has tested prototypes with magnets for wall-mounting. And it will support Apple Intelligence — something Apple’s HomePods don’t currently do.
Another recent rumor suggested that a “HomeAccessory” device coming soon would be square-shaped, and that users might be able to use hand gestures from afar to control it, as 9to5Mac wrote earlier this week. And MacRumors has reported on apparent code references to the device and homeOS.
A display like this sounds more down-to-Earth than Apple’s robotic screen idea. It could also be less fiddly and hopefully less expensive than trying to use an iPad as a dedicated smart home controller (I’ve tried; it’s not a great experience!) We’ll find out if and when it launches — which doesn’t sound terribly far off.
There are some major updates to Google Maps, Street View, and Google Earth to know about – and the new and upgraded features should prove helpful in all kinds of ways for users of Google’s mapping tools.
The updates are outlined in a blog post by Google, and first up we’ve got the addition of historical imagery on Google Earth, going back as far as 80 years in some places. Some of this imagery has previously been available in the paid-for, Pro version of the software, but it’s now going to be accessible for all users across the web and mobile.
“Maybe you want to travel back in time and see what your neighborhood looked like decades ago,” explains Stafford Marquardt, a senior product manager at Google Maps. “Or you want to understand how forests have been affected by human activity and the changing climate.”
Certain cities, including London, Berlin, Warsaw, and Paris, now offer satellite imagery stretching back to the 1930s – making it possible to get a detailed look at how these places have evolved and adapted over the decades.
Advertisement
More Street View imagery
A new Street View image from Tasman, New Zealand (Image credit: Google)
In Google Maps, there’s going to be expanded Street View imagery across 80 countries – with some of those countries getting Street View pictures for the first time. What’s more, Google says even more places will be getting Street View in the future.
The example photos included in Google’s blog post cover Iceland, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, Tasmania, Japan, Denmark, and France. According to Google, it’s one of the most significant updates to Street View in its history (it launched back in 2007), and the total number of images now exceeds 280 billion.
And finally in this round of updates, Google says it’s “sharpening” satellite imagery across Google Earth and Google Maps. With a little help from AI, new cloud removal tools have been applied to reveal more of the globe than ever before, giving you “a refreshed global mosaic that gives you a clearer, more accurate look at Earth”.
Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.
Advertisement
If you’re not already seeing the updates to Google Earth and Google Maps on your device, they should show up soon. We saw another update earlier this week, when Google Maps improved its lane navigation interface on Android Auto.
Features – VEVOR 20U Open Frame Server Rack, 23”-40” Adjustable Depth, Free Standing or Wall Mount Network Server Rack, 4 Post AV Rack with Casters, Holds All Your Networking IT Equipment AV Gear Router Modem
// FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL //
Website ► https://www.augusttech.org/
Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/augusttech9
Twitter ► https://twitter.com/augusttech9
Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/augusttech9/
// DISCLAIMERS //
The links for the devices are an affiliate advertising program for us to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to www.amazon.com.
VOR NVS is on the edge of the village of Navas del Rey, Spain
Ignacio Evangelista
These solitary structures were once a key pillar of aviation navigation, but, due to their remote locations, today they are little known. Photographer Ignacio Evangelista’s starkly beautiful shots shine a light on the beacons, dubbed VORs (very high-frequency omnidirectional range stations), and their role in carving out routes in the sky for aircraft.
VOR CMA
Ignacio Evangelista
Advertisement
Essentially giant antennas, VORs beam out radio signals from secluded spots to allow planes to fix their location and stay on course by flying from VOR to VOR. The signals can be thought of as “breadcrumbs”, says Evangelista. The isolation is necessary to avoid interference in broadcasts between VORs.
Stations like the ones pictured here are a dying breed, as they are increasingly being decommissioned in favour of satellite-based GPS. But although GPS may be a more accurate means of navigation, VORs offer a back-up during events like solar storms or GPS interference, without which there could be a great deal of chaos, says Evangelista.
VOR BRY
Ignacio Evangelista
Advertisement
Because their locations are publicly available, anyone can seek out a remaining VOR simply by using GPS – a “curious technological pirouette”, as Evangelista puts it. This set him on course to document some of the more photo-worthy stations before they disappear for good.
Pictured from the top, the first two stations are in Spain – VOR NVS is on the edge of the village of Navas del Rey, 50 kilometres from Madrid, while VOR CMA is 1.5 km from the village of Calamocha. The last, VOR BRY, is on the edge of French village Bray-sur-Seine.
Ever since Titanicbecame one of the biggest movies in history in 1997, fans have speculated about whether Jack could have fit on the door during the film’s climactic sequence. In that sequence, Leonardo DiCaprio‘s Jack freezes to death in the icy Atlantic, while Kate Winslet’s Rose survives because she is laying on a floating door.
While that debate may never end, Winslet added a new wrinkle to it during a recent interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. Winslet explained that filming that sequence was awkward because the actors were pretending to be in the middle of the ocean when they were really in a relativey shallow water tank.
“That was quite an awkward tank, that one, because — to burst a bubble, it was waist-height, that tank,” the actress explained. “Leo is, I’m afraid, kneeling down on the bottom of the tank.”
Winslet added that, because the tank was fairly easy to get in and out of, she often took bathroom breaks during the shoot. “I was regularly like, ‘Can I just go for a pee?’” the Lee actress said. “And then I’d get up, get off the door, walk to the edge of the tank that was 20 feet away, and I’d literally have to fling my leg over and climb out of the tank and go for a pee, and then come back and crawl back on the door again. I know, it’s terrible to admit these things.”
The water in the tank was constantly being recirculated, and Winslet said that that led to major audio issues and ultimately forced the cast to re-record their dialogue.
Advertisement
“Which, let me tell you, everybody, means that the last 22 minutes of that movie are entirely looped. Everything… completely looped the whole thing. I promise you, because you could hear this water noise the whole time,” she explained.
Winslet also expressed some minor fears about revealing so much about the film and said that she missed multiple opportunities to see it after it first premiered. While we may never know whether Jack could have survived, now we know that Leo wasn’t actually doing much kicking while filming that crucial sequence.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login