E3: Sam Altman, the Microsoft Bull Case, and AI Live Players

In our third episode of The Riff, Byrne Hobart and Erik Torenberg discuss the evolving story of Sam Altman’s ousting at OpenAI and new home at Microsoft, what OpenAI's next pivot could look like, the new competitive landscape for the big AI players, and Effective Altruism’s role in this drama. Need Soc 2 compliance? Get 20% off your first year of Secureframe by mentioning "The Riff" during your free demo: https://secureframe.com/riff

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LINKS:

Byrne's writing: https://thediff.co

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X / TWITTER:

@eriktorenberg

@byrnehobart

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Episode Preview

(00:30) Non obvious thoughts about governance and legal structures

(03:30) Could the board have found out something about Sam?

(04:40) Tech’s online coordination and choosing sides

(06:00) Why haven’t the OpenAI board shared their reasoning?

(12:00) Are they going to bring Sam back?

(15:00) What should OpenAI’s pivot be?

(17:15) Sponsor: Secureframe

(18:20) Analyzing Microsoft's moves and the sweetheart deal

(21:40) Satya's succession plans

(24:45) OpenAI's unique governance structure

(27:50) Why Byrne is long on Microsoft

(35:40) What explains Microsoft's turnaround?

(37:55) Meta and Google

(44:00) Which of these companies Byrne would short: Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft

(46:00) Was this a coup from the Effective Altruism movement?