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OpenAI's Top Scientists Resign Amid Concerns Over Company's Safety Culture
Tech brief: 8 | AI: 4 | VC & Startups: 4 | Consumer Tech: 4 | eCommerce :2 | Social: 2 | Fintech: 2
Kristoffer Lindström
May 20, 2024
TECH BRIEF
OpenAI has been hit with two major resignations; Co-founder Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, both leaders of the superalignment team, have stepped down. While Sutskever's departure was anticipated due to previous tensions, Leike's abrupt exit has raised concerns. The company's restrictive off-boarding process, which has potential implications for employees' vested equity, has also come into focus. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, has indicated plans to revise this controversial provision. Amidst these upheavals, OpenAI launched ChatGPT's conversational abilities.
Jean Liu, President of Didi Global Inc., steps down from her role along with her board director position amid company's struggle to rejuvenate growth post stringent regulatory control. However, she will join as a permanent partner, serving as chief people officer, accountable to CEO Will Cheng. Despite the changes, Liu's roles remain intact. Didi, which was planning a Hong Kong listing after its NY delisting, indicated progress after a 55% revenue surge in Q4 2023 from the previous year.
Despite a 78% annual drop in AI growth rates across popular vendors, top quartile software companies report strong account expansion and a 129% net dollar retention rate. With a year-on-year surge of 293% in AI software services transaction volumes compared to a mere 6% increase in overall software transactions, AI's growth remains high across all company sizes and most industries. OpenAI's recent 50% price cut indicates a market deflation, and rapidly evolving buyer preferences impact the deployment and application costs.
Slack has been using clients' messages, files, and data to improve its AI features without the clients’ knowledge or consent. The company confirmed it uses customer content to train certain AI tools, but not for its premium AI offering. The opt-out process for this is laborious, requiring an organization admin's request. Doubt over Slack's data privacy practices have emerged as its policies suggest contradictory practices about data usage for AI development.
Microsoft avoids UK antitrust probe for its partnership with French AI firm Mistral AI as it does not have the power to ""materially influence"" Mistral’s policy. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is examining Big Tech's investments into AI start-ups due to potential competition issues. Both Microsoft's deal with Inflection AI and its partnership with OpenAI are currently under investigation.
OpenAI has disbanded its Superalignment team, responsible for the long-term risks of AI, a year after its formation. The Superalignment team was committed to guiding smarter AI systems and had 20% of OpenAI's computing power for four years.
Apple has adjusted its App Store guidelines in Europe to comply with the DMA antitrust legislation, allowing developers to use their own engines for iPhone web browsers. However, the tech giant limits testing of third-party web browsers to devices located in Europe, adding a barrier for developers. The EU Commission expressed dissatisfaction with Apple's responses to the new law, hinting at potential future changes.
ByteDance, TikTok's China-based parent company, has appealed to expedite its lawsuit against a US law ordering it to sell the platform or face a ban. The law, signed in April by President Biden, addresses national security issues regarding potential Chinese government access to user data. TikTok argues the law is unconstitutional and violates free-speech rights.
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