AI's daddy was fired

but is maybe coming back?

Author

Boys Club
November 19, 2023

gm,

Club happenings:

Bye!

The Boys

Writer: Deana

Sam, Sacked. Sorry I know this is a crypto newsletter but hot damn, the big boss of OpenAI, Sam Altman, was suddenly fired by OpenAI’s board of directors on Friday afternoon, bringing the tech world to its knees. Details are scant. Rumors are swirling. What we know for sure is that he was fired alongside the President and co-founder Greg Brockman. Both put out statements on Friday night, and continued to post cryptic notes through the weekend. Three senior researchers resigned, and employees are staging a heart emoji protest on X, including posts from official OpenAI accounts. Pressure on the board is so hot that now they want to hire him back? Talks are “optimistic” but would likely involve the board resigning and other major changes to the org.

There are a few different camps of speculation as to what caused the termination. The first is the ‘tech is just too good’ camp. Maybe AGI has been achieved internally? Maybe not, but regardless, the board wants to slow down for safety and Sam wants to press on the gas. A second theory is that Sam’s new venture (maybe with former chief design officer at Apple, Jony Ive?) is undermining his position at OpenAI. Worldcoin, a crypto venture that Sam also co-founded, dropped 12% in price on the news of his firing. More on this developing story in our Wednesday newsletter!

EthBoy. 200 ETH for an NFT, In this economy? Actually yes. EthBoy, an NFT and painting of Vitalik Buterin by artists Trevor Jones and Alotta Money, sold for close to $400K on OpenSea this week, beating its 2021 sale price of roughly $140,000. Not only that, but the buyer opted to pay an optional 10% creator royalty on top of the 200 ETH. Kind! EthBoy is a great example of programmable art, as it changes based on different data inputs like the price of ETH and BTC.

Doge To the Moon. They’re sending a “physical Dogecoin” (idk?) to the actual moon in December. Meaning they are putting a physical token (again, idk?) on a literal rocket and launching it into space, to land on the moon. Okay!