- It doesn’t sound like the new head of OpenAI, Emmett Shear, is a fan of his time at Microsoft.
- Shear previously compared working for the tech giant to selling your soul in an X post.
- Microsoft invested $10 billion in OpenAI and hired former CEO Sam Altman to lead the new AI team.
If Sam Altman needs advice on what is it like to work at Microsofthe might ask Emmett Shear, the man who replaced him.
The new head of OpenAI previously said that working for Microsoft, which has invested over $10 billion in the AI startup, was like selling his soul.
“When I interned at Microsoft, every paycheck felt like I was getting paid for a piece of my soul in the mail,” Shear said in the post on X, written in July. It is unclear how long and when Shear worked for the tech giant.
He was the co-founder of Twitch named interim CEO of OpenAI on Sunday evening, after negotiations to bring in Sam Altman failed. In a post on the X website, he stated that Altman was removed in this way “treated very badly” and “seriously damaged our trust.”
His social media activity also suggests that he has a relatively cautious approach to artificial intelligence. In a post on X from September, he wrote that yes “to slow down” Development of artificial intelligence.
Shear’s comments about working at Microsoft are unlikely to help as he seeks to smooth over relations between OpenAI and its largest investor.
Apparently Microsoft received it one minute notification about Altman’s firing, which angered Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, an anonymous source said Bloomberg.
Nadella said he was “looking forward to meeting and working with Emmett Shear and the new OpenAI leadership team.” in the post on Monday X in which he confirmed Microsoft’s commitment to OpenAI.
In the same post, he said that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman would join Microsoft to lead its new artificial intelligence team.
OpenAI and Microsoft did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment made outside normal business hours.
