What a ridiculous series of days it’s been. What a telling outcome it’s had.
Sam Altman was booted out of Open AI barely minutes after addressing the Apex Summit and only a couple of days after Open AI’s first dev congress. Can I be honest? I’ll be honest. I think that many people heaved a sigh of relief albeit reeling from the news. It felt to me that Open AI’s board had suddenly discovered something in development that scared even them. Something that they potentially felt could be more risk than reward to society. With Altman out, the idea was to gain control and slow everything down. That’s what I thought happened. I don’t think I was the only one, either. Open AI had suddenly grown a conscience. There was an underlying sense of calm. I figured AI development would slow down. Become more sensible. More institutional.
And then Greg Brockman quit. Uh oh. A competitor to Open AI is in the works. That introduces some interesting dynamics, I thought. I liked that — the thought of a new GPT-type entity. It opened the field up and commoditized the tech a little. Gave more room for competition which is always good for customers. [Have you seen Open AI’s revenue projections?] It would still slow things down a bit so we could all breathe, think, and be a bit more rational about what role AI would actually play in our society.
Then Microsoft hired Sam.
I’d have done the same, no-brainer. Microsoft’s a more structured organization. Satya has a very clear vision of where he wants to go. All he really has to do is take a chunk out of Google’s search traffic, really. So this is still fine. It allows things to unfold more naturally. Microsoft is not exactly a threatening organization by any standards.
And then 12 hours ago, Sam quit Microsoft and is rehired as CEO of Open AI. In tech, we like to use the exponential metric especially when measuring unicorns. The pace to a million users has incrementally decreased if one compares the user adoption rates of Uber to ChatGPT for example.
Somehow that same metric has mirrored itself in this scenario. I’ll explain. The last time we had an industry-defining Out-In-Out-in situation of note was with… yup you guessed it, Steve Jobs. It took a couple of years then. Fast forward to 2023, and it took a couple of days. And what happened with the return of the Messiah to his congregation? Miraculous, chaotic, brilliant, alarming, unrestrained, amazing, industry disruption. Or obsoletion.
Where I’m from we say that a dead goat fears no knife. The events that have unfolded over the last couple of days essentially have handed Sam authority without jurisdiction. We have witnessed a demonstration and concession that he is the unchartered, unquestionable leader into whose hands we have entrusted the future of AI and our civilization as we know it. Dramatic? Fine. Pull out your iPhone and throw it at me. You don’t have an iPhone you scoff, twiddling your foldable Samsung? That’s exactly my point. What Steve Jobs did wasn’t to release iPhones or Macs. It was to fire up technological warfare in areas we didn’t even know were possible. Whether you use a Mac or PC, Siri or Alexa, an iPhone or whatever else, even your smartwatch… think back to where the urgency to participate in that innovation came from.
It came from a man who had a dictatorial confidence born from knowing that having been thrown out of what he’d built and coming back in as the proverbial savior, welcomed by teeming supporters, there was nothing, no one or system under the sun that could get in his way ever again. And so ladies and gentlemen, I suggest we buckle up. Because that scenario is to unfold all over again.
The iPhone was launched 15 years ago. Think about how everything you took for granted before then has changed. Think about how the record companies fought against iTunes before they were forced to capitulate under the violent trample of the technological future. Think about how everything you kept on your desk now fits in your phone. Think about how you have more computing power in your pocket now, than we needed to send man to the moon.
And then consider that all of that is just the starting point for AI. Maybe you should look around your desk one more time. Could it be possible that this time, not only the things on your desk now, but the people around and what they do, will be absorbed into something else, whatever it is?
It’s worth some pause. What a time to be alive.
The one positive thing from all of this? Silver lining and whatnot? A very necessary kick in the shins of conspiratorial boards.
Until next time,
Spyda.
