Tag Archives: Board & Management Changes

Waymo raises $5.6 billion to fund Austin and Atlanta expansion

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Waymo has raised another huge chunk of change from investors. The company announced on its blog that it secured an “oversubscribed investment round” of $5.6 billion in funding, the largest of which came from Google's parent company Alphabet.

The company is working with Uber to expand to Austin and Atlanta by the early part of next year. Waymo says it plans to use this latest infusion of capital for the expansions. This latest round brings Waymo’s total capital fundraising to $11.1 billion, with the $5.5 billion it picked up in two earlier rounds in 2020 and 2021.

Waymo currently operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix with a curbside transport service for Sky Harbor International Airport through its Waymo One driving system for businesses. The company announced it’s also started offering “fully autonomous freeway operations in Phoenix and San Francisco.”

The new funding will also help Waymo advance its Waymo One system, an adaptable autonomous driving system for different businesses. Waymo wrote on its blog it plans to “support a variety of business applications over time” through Waymo One.

Alphabet ponied up $5 billion for Waymo back in July as part of what Alphabet’s chief financial officer Ruth Porat called a “multi-year investment.” The driverless vehicle fleet logged a total of 25 million miles in July outpacing companies like Uber, which sold its self-driving unit four years ago before joining forces with Waymo.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymo-raises-56-billion-to-fund-austin-and-atlanta-expansion-172031686.html?src=rss

Waymo raises $5.6 billion to fund Austin and Atlanta expansion

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Waymo has raised another huge chunk of change from investors. The company announced on its blog that it secured an “oversubscribed investment round” of $5.6 billion in funding, the largest of which came from Google's parent company Alphabet.

The company is working with Uber to expand to Austin and Atlanta by the early part of next year. Waymo says it plans to use this latest infusion of capital for the expansions. This latest round brings Waymo’s total capital fundraising to $11.1 billion, with the $5.5 billion it picked up in two earlier rounds in 2020 and 2021.

Waymo currently operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix with a curbside transport service for Sky Harbor International Airport through its Waymo One driving system for businesses. The company announced it’s also started offering “fully autonomous freeway operations in Phoenix and San Francisco.”

The new funding will also help Waymo advance its Waymo One system, an adaptable autonomous driving system for different businesses. Waymo wrote on its blog it plans to “support a variety of business applications over time” through Waymo One.

Alphabet ponied up $5 billion for Waymo back in July as part of what Alphabet’s chief financial officer Ruth Porat called a “multi-year investment.” The driverless vehicle fleet logged a total of 25 million miles in July outpacing companies like Uber, which sold its self-driving unit four years ago before joining forces with Waymo.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymo-raises-56-billion-to-fund-austin-and-atlanta-expansion-172031686.html?src=rss

Craig Duncan to succeed Alan Hartman as Xbox Game Studios head

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The head of Xbox Game Studios Alan Hartman is set to retire at the end of November, marking an end to 30 years working at Microsoft. Appointed to succeed him is Craig Duncan, the studio head of Rare, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2002. To fill in for Duncan’s eventual departure from the studio, Joe Neate and Jim Horth will take over as co-leads of Rare, as seen in an internal memo seen by The Verge:

In his new role, Craig will continue to focus on helping our studios deliver high-quality, differentiated game experiences that can grow into successful franchises and reach more players by investing in new IP. Craig will report to me and join the Game Content and Studios leadership team, working closely with Alan during the transition. The existing XGS leadership team Alan established will remain intact and report to Craig.

I am also pleased to announce that Joe Neate and Jim Horth will take over as co-leads of Rare. Their leadership has played a crucial role in Rare’s growth, and I am confident they will elevate the studio and its games to even greater heights.

Interestingly, Hartman had only had his job as head of Xbox Game Studios for less than a year. Hartman led Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 for almost two decades before being pulled in to replace former Xbox Games Studio head Matt Booty last year. His retirement is somewhat surprising, but since it’s not due to any controversies in the company, it’s likely just a case of him wanting to retire from 30 years at Microsoft.

This change of heads comes about a month after Microsoft laid off 650 employees. These layoffs are related to its decision in 2022 to acquire Activision Blizzard. While no games are canceled, this change of heads may signify a shift in Xbox Game Studios' future plans.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/craig-duncan-to-succeed-alan-hartman-as-xbox-game-studios-head-170254040.html?src=rss

CTO Mira Murati is the latest leader to leave OpenAI

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Mira Murati has departed OpenAI, where she had been the chief technology officer since 2018. In a note shared with the company and then posted publicly on X, Murati said that she is exiting "because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration."

Murati gained additional visibility as a face for the AI company when she briefly assumed CEO duties in November 2023 when the board of directors fired Sam Altman. Altman returned to the helm and Murati resumed work as CTO. However, her departure follows on two other notable exits. Last month, president and co–founder Greg Brockman and co-founder John Schulman both announced that they would be stepping away from OpenAI. Brockman is taking a sabbatical and Schulman is moving to rival AI firm Anthropic.

Here is the full text of Murati's statement:

Hi all,

I have something to share with you. After much reflection, I have made the difficult decision to leave OpenAl.

My six-and-a-half years with the OpenAl team have been an extraordinary privilege. While I’ll express my gratitude to many individuals in the coming days, I want to start by thanking Sam and Greg for their trust in me to lead the technical organization and for their support throughout the years.

There’s never an ideal time to step away from a place one cherishes, yet this moment feels right. Our recent releases of speech-to-speech and OpenAl o1 mark the beginning of a new era in interaction and intelligence - achievements made possible by your ingenuity and craftsmanship. We didn’t merely build smarter models, we fundamentally changed how Al systems learn and reason through complex problems.

We brought safety research from the theoretical realm into practical applications, creating models that are more robust, aligned, and steerable than ever before. Our work has made cutting-edge Al research intuitive and accessible, developing technology that adapts and evolves based on everyone’s input. This success is a testament to our outstanding teamwork, and it is because of your brilliance, your dedication, and your commitment that OpenAl stands at the pinnacle of Al innovation.

I’m stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration. For now, my primary focus is doing everything in my power to ensure a smooth transition, maintaining the momentum we’ve built.

I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to build and work alongside this remarkable team. Together, we’ve pushed the boundaries of scientific understanding in our quest to improve human well-being. While I may no longer be in the trenches with you, I will still be rooting for you all.

With deep gratitude for the friendships forged, the triumphs achieved, and most importantly, the challenges overcome together.

Mira

In a post on X, Altman has revealed that the company's Chief Research Officer, Bob McGrew, and VP of Research, Barret Zoph, are also leaving the company. He said they made the decisions "independently of each other and amicably," but it made sense to "do this all at once" for a smooth handover. OpenAI's leadership will go through some changes as a result, with Mark Chen, the Head of Frontiers Research, being named as Research SVP. Research Scientist Josh Achiam has been named as Head of Mission Alignment, while Mark Knight, the Head of Security, is now the Chief Information Security Officer. 

Update, September 26, 2024, 7:03AM ET: This post has been updated to include information about the other staffers leaving OpenAI.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/cto-mira-murati-is-the-latest-leader-to-leave-openai-200230104.html?src=rss

ChatGPT has doubled its weekly active users to 200 million

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ChatGPT now has 200 million weekly active users, according to OpenAI. That represents a doubling of the weekly audience of 100 million the company announced last November. A representative from the company told Engadget that API usage has also doubled since the July release of GPT-4o mini.

User numbers aren't the only big growth OpenAI has seen over the past year. CEO Sam Altman reportedly told employees this summer that the company's annualized revenue — which takes a monthly revenue figure and stretches it out over a whole year — had reached $3.4 billion, up from $1.6 billion at the end of 2023.

Separately from today's usercount announcement, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft are in talks to invest in a new fundraising round for OpenAI. The only detail the report had about the scale of this funding round was that it would push OpenAI's valuation above $100 billion.

Microsoft has invested $13 billion into the AI business since 2019, while Apple revealed that ChatGPT will form a large part of its upcoming Apple Intelligence push. Both Microsoft and Apple gave up their seats on OpenAI's board of directors this summer after the European Commission raised antitrust concerns about the businesses' close relationships.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/chatgpt-has-doubled-its-weekly-active-users-to-200-million-233037951.html?src=rss

Two more OpenAI leaders are leaving the company

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Two key OpenAI personnel are leaving the company, while another one is taking a months-long leave of absence. As reported by The Information, OpenAI president Greg Brockman is taking a sabbatical, while his fellow co-founder John Schulman is bidding the company farewell and joining its rival Anthropic. Peter Deng, its VP for consumer product who joined last year, is leaving OpenAI, as well. Deng used to lead product developments at Meta and Uber.

In a post on X/Twitter, Brockman said his leave of absence will last through end of year and that it's his "first time to relax" since the founding of OpenAI nine years ago. He also reportedly assured staff members that he's coming back after his vacation. Brockman temporarily left OpenAI last year when the company's board ousted its CEO, Sam Altman. They were both reinstated just a few days later, whereas the board was disbanded and replaced.

John Schulman also posted the note he sent to OpenAI staff on X, where he said that his departure stems from his "desire to deepen [his] focus on AI alignment" and to "return to hands-on technical work." He clarified that he wasn't leaving OpenAI due to lack of support for alignment research and that the company's executives have apparently been "very committed to investing in this area." At OpenAI, Schulman helped lead the post-training team that refined its large language models. After the company disbanded the "Superalignment" team that was in charge of steering powerful AI models that could pose a threat to humanity in the future, OpenAI said Schulman would be in charge of any future safety efforts. 

These departures follow several major previous changes in OpenAI's rank of leaders. Before the Superalignment team was disbanded, Jan Leike, one of its heads, wrote on X that "safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products" within the company over the past years. Company co-founder and Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever also left in May. He was involved in Altman's dismissal as a board member, though he later said that he regretted his participation in the board's actions. While he remained Chief Scientist after the event, he reportedly never truly returned to his duties. The Information also notes that OpenAI recently hired its first CFO and chief product officer, which may have had an effect on Deng's role within the company. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/two-more-openai-leaders-are-leaving-the-company-110012003.html?src=rss

OpenAI’s board allegedly learned about ChatGPT launch on Twitter

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Helen Toner, one of OpenAI’s former board members who was responsible for firing CEO Sam Altman last year, revealed that the company’s board didn’t know about the launch of ChatGPT until it was released in November 2022. “[The] board was not informed in advance of that,” Toner said on Tuesday on a podcast called The Ted AI Show. “We learned about ChatGPT on Twitter.”

Toner’s comments came just two days after she criticized the way OpenAI was governed in an Economist piece that she co-wrote with Tasha McCauley, another former OpenAI board member. This is the first time that Toner has spoken openly about the circumstances that led to Altman’s dramatic ouster from the company he co-founded in 2015, and his quick reinstatement following protests from employees.

In the podcast, Toner, who is current a director of strategy at the Centre for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown, said that Altman had made it hard for OpenAI’s board to do its job by withholding information, misrepresenting things, and, “in some cases outright lying to the board.” She added that Altman also hid the company’s ownership structure from the board. “Sam didn’t inform the board that he owned the OpenAI startup fund, even though he constantly was claiming to be an independent board member with no financial interest in the company,” Toner said. Altman’s actions “really damaged our ability to trust him,” she said, and by October 2023, the board was “already talking pretty seriously about whether we needed to fire him.”

She criticized Altman’s leadership on safety concerns around AI, saying that he often gave the board inaccurate information on the company’s safety processes, “meaning that it was basically impossible for the board to know how well those safety processes were working or what might need to change.”

When asked for comment, an OpenAI spokesperson referred Engadget to the statement the company provided to The TED AI Show. “We are disappointed that Ms. Toner continues to revisit these issues,” Bret Taylor, OpenAI’s current board chief and co-CEO of Salesforce told the podcast. An independent review of Altman’s firing, he added, “concluded that the prior board’s decision was not based on concerns regarding product safety or security, the pace of development, OpenAI’s finances, or its statements to investors, customers, or business partners.”

The exact reasons for Altman’s abrupt ouster last year were still unclear and have been a source of intense speculation in Silicon Valley. In March, Altman was reinstated to the board by a group of temporary board members which included Taylor, economist Larry Summers, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, Instacart CEO and former Meta executive Fiji Simo, former Sony executive Nicole Seligman, and former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann. In an independent investigation, law firm WilmerHale found that Toner’s decision to fire Altman along with the rest of OpenAI’s previous Board “was a consequence of a breakdown in the relationship and loss of trust between the prior Board and Mr. Altman.” WilmerHale also found that OpenAI’s previous board had fired Altman “abruptly” and without giving him a chance to respond to its concerns.

Toner’s revelations are the latest controversy that OpenAI, company that sparked off the modern AI revolution, has been involved in. Over the last few days, multiple safety researchers left the company, publicly criticizing its leadership on their way out. OpenAI also backtracked on non-disparagement agreements it had required departing employees to sign after a Vox investigation, and forced to explain itself after actor Scarlet Johansson accused the company of copying her voice for ChatGPT despite denying permission.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openais-board-allegedly-learned-about-chatgpt-launch-on-twitter-235643014.html?src=rss

OpenAI’s board allegedly learned about ChatGPT launch on Twitter

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Helen Toner, one of OpenAI’s former board members who was responsible for firing CEO Sam Altman last year, revealed that the company’s board didn’t know about the launch of ChatGPT until it was released in November 2022. “[The] board was not informed in advance of that,” Toner said on Tuesday on a podcast called The Ted AI Show. “We learned about ChatGPT on Twitter.”

Toner’s comments came just two days after she criticized the way OpenAI was governed in an Economist piece that she co-wrote with Tasha McCauley, another former OpenAI board member. This is the first time that Toner has spoken openly about the circumstances that led to Altman’s dramatic ouster from the company he co-founded in 2015, and his quick reinstatement following protests from employees.

In the podcast, Toner, who is current a director of strategy at the Centre for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown, said that Altman had made it hard for OpenAI’s board to do its job by withholding information, misrepresenting things, and, “in some cases outright lying to the board.” She added that Altman also hid the company’s ownership structure from the board. “Sam didn’t inform the board that he owned the OpenAI startup fund, even though he constantly was claiming to be an independent board member with no financial interest in the company,” Toner said. Altman’s actions “really damaged our ability to trust him,” she said, and by October 2023, the board was “already talking pretty seriously about whether we needed to fire him.”

She criticized Altman’s leadership on safety concerns around AI, saying that he often gave the board inaccurate information on the company’s safety processes, “meaning that it was basically impossible for the board to know how well those safety processes were working or what might need to change.”

When asked for comment, an OpenAI spokesperson referred Engadget to the statement the company provided to The TED AI Show. “We are disappointed that Ms. Toner continues to revisit these issues,” Bret Taylor, OpenAI’s current board chief and co-CEO of Salesforce told the podcast. An independent review of Altman’s firing, he added, “concluded that the prior board’s decision was not based on concerns regarding product safety or security, the pace of development, OpenAI’s finances, or its statements to investors, customers, or business partners.”

The exact reasons for Altman’s abrupt ouster last year were still unclear and have been a source of intense speculation in Silicon Valley. In March, Altman was reinstated to the board by a group of temporary board members which included Taylor, economist Larry Summers, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, Instacart CEO and former Meta executive Fiji Simo, former Sony executive Nicole Seligman, and former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann. In an independent investigation, law firm WilmerHale found that Toner’s decision to fire Altman along with the rest of OpenAI’s previous Board “was a consequence of a breakdown in the relationship and loss of trust between the prior Board and Mr. Altman.” WilmerHale also found that OpenAI’s previous board had fired Altman “abruptly” and without giving him a chance to respond to its concerns.

Toner’s revelations are the latest controversy that OpenAI, company that sparked off the modern AI revolution, has been involved in. Over the last few days, multiple safety researchers left the company, publicly criticizing its leadership on their way out. OpenAI also backtracked on non-disparagement agreements it had required departing employees to sign after a Vox investigation, and forced to explain itself after actor Scarlet Johansson accused the company of copying her voice for ChatGPT despite denying permission.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openais-board-allegedly-learned-about-chatgpt-launch-on-twitter-235643014.html?src=rss

OpenAI co-founder and Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever is leaving the company

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Ilya Sutskever has announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he's leaving OpenAI almost a decade after he co-founded the company. He's confident that OpenAI "will build [artificial general intelligence] that is both safe and beneficial" under the leadership of CEO Sam Altman, President Greg Brockman and CTO Mira Murati, he continued. In his own post about Sutskever's departure, Altman called him "one of the greatest minds of our generation" and credited him for his work with the company. Jakub Pachocki, OpenAI's previous Director of Research who headed the development of GPT-4 and OpenAI Five, has taken Sutskever's role as Chief Scientist. 

While Sutskever and Altman praised each other in their farewell messages, the two were embroiled in the company's biggest scandal last year. In November, OpenAI's board of directors suddenly fired Altman and company President Greg Brockman. "[T]he board no longer has confidence in [Altman's] ability to continue leading OpenAI," the ChatGPT-maker announced back then. Sutskever, who was a board member, was involved in their dismissal and was the one who asked both Altman and Brockman to separate meetings where they were informed that they were being fired. According to reports that came out at the time, Altman and Sutskever had been butting heads when it came to how quickly OpenAI was developing and commercializing its generative AI technology. 

Both Altman and Brockman were reinstated just five days after they were fired, and the original board was disbanded and replaced with a new one. Shortly before that happened, Sutskever posted on X that he "deeply regre[tted his] participation in the board's actions" and that he will do everything he can "to reunite the company." He then stepped down from his role as a board member, and while he remained Chief Scientist, The New York Times says he never really returned to work. 

Sutskever shared that he's moving on to a new project that's "very personally meaningful" to him, though he has yet to share details about it. As for OpenAI, it recently unveiled GPT-4o, which it claims can recognize emotion and can process and generate output in text, audio and images.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openai-co-founder-and-chief-scientist-ilya-sutskever-is-leaving-the-company-054650964.html?src=rss

OpenAI co-founder and Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever is leaving the company

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Ilya Sutskever has announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he's leaving OpenAI almost a decade after he co-founded the company. He's confident that OpenAI "will build [artificial general intelligence] that is both safe and beneficial" under the leadership of CEO Sam Altman, President Greg Brockman and CTO Mira Murati, he continued. In his own post about Sutskever's departure, Altman called him "one of the greatest minds of our generation" and credited him for his work with the company. Jakub Pachocki, OpenAI's previous Director of Research who headed the development of GPT-4 and OpenAI Five, has taken Sutskever's role as Chief Scientist. 

While Sutskever and Altman praised each other in their farewell messages, the two were embroiled in the company's biggest scandal last year. In November, OpenAI's board of directors suddenly fired Altman and company President Greg Brockman. "[T]he board no longer has confidence in [Altman's] ability to continue leading OpenAI," the ChatGPT-maker announced back then. Sutskever, who was a board member, was involved in their dismissal and was the one who asked both Altman and Brockman to separate meetings where they were informed that they were being fired. According to reports that came out at the time, Altman and Sutskever had been butting heads when it came to how quickly OpenAI was developing and commercializing its generative AI technology. 

Both Altman and Brockman were reinstated just five days after they were fired, and the original board was disbanded and replaced with a new one. Shortly before that happened, Sutskever posted on X that he "deeply regre[tted his] participation in the board's actions" and that he will do everything he can "to reunite the company." He then stepped down from his role as a board member, and while he remained Chief Scientist, The New York Times says he never really returned to work. 

Sutskever shared that he's moving on to a new project that's "very personally meaningful" to him, though he has yet to share details about it. As for OpenAI, it recently unveiled GPT-4o, which it claims can recognize emotion and can process and generate output in text, audio and images.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openai-co-founder-and-chief-scientist-ilya-sutskever-is-leaving-the-company-054650964.html?src=rss