Altman's ouster highlights a major rift in the artificial intelligence world, where some people believe that the tech should be rushed forward with minimal government regulation to make money and provide helpful tools to people, while others are concerned that AI could quickly surpass human intelligence and turn on its creators. OpenAI was initially founded as a nonprofit to provide a counter to Big Tech's power in AI, but as the company took on more investment money and began developing consumer products, some in the industry said it had abandoned its mission.

The confounding saga of Sam Altman's sudden, shocking expulsion from OpenAI on Friday, followed by last-ditch attempts from investors and loyalists to reinstate him over the weekend, appears to have ended right where it started: with Altman and former OpenAI co-founder/president/board member Greg Brockman out for good. But there's a twist: Microsoft, which has been OpenAI's cash-and-infrastructure backer for years, announced early Monday morning that it was hiring Altman and Brockman "to lead a new advanced AI research team." In a follow-up tweet, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella declared that Altman would become chief executive of this team, which would take the shape of an "independent" entity within Microsoft, operating something like company subsidiaries GitHub and LinkedIn. Notably, per Brockman, this new entity will be led by himself, Altman, and the first three employees who'd quit OpenAI Friday night in protest of how those two had been treated. I'm super excited to have you join as CEO of this new group, Sam, setting a new pace for innovation.

But Microsoft, OpenAI's biggest investor, has decided not to take a chance on Mr Altman taking this tech elsewhere. He will be joining the Seattle-based tech giant, it has been announced, to lead a yet-to-be-created AI research team. His co-founder Greg Brockman goes with him, and judging from the number of staff members posting on X today, it looks like he'll be taking some of OpenAI's top talent too.

After a weekend of chaos at OpenAI, the company's board of directors appointed former Twitch boss Emmett Shear interim CEO late Sunday. It was just the latest in a string of tumultuous changes at the AI company following Friday's ouster of CEO Sam Altman, and it left many wondering what kind of CEO Shear would be, why the board had chosen him, and how much he would differ from Altman. Shear was one of four cofounders of Justin.tv, In June 2011, the site moved its gaming content to its new Twitch platform, which soon became the go-to place for video game streaming, with millions of monthly streamers. Amazon bought the company for $1 billion in 2014.

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Hundreds of OpenAI staff members have threatened to quit en masse if the board overseeing the ChatGPT developer does not reinstate its ousted chief executive Sam Altman and then step down. In an open letter, 550 of OpenAI's 700 employees demanded the resignation of the board and said they might walk out if Altman is not brought back. Altman was fired on Friday in a move that shocked Silicon Valley and angered most of the company's employees. The letter to OpenAI's four remaining board directors says: "Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAI. We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgment and care for our mission and employees."

The OpenAI chaos took another twist on Monday morning as most of the company's staff threatened to quit unless the board resigns and reinstates former CEO Sam Altman and ex-president Greg Brockman. According to Wired and Kara Swisher, around 500 employees -- including several executives -- signed the letter. Swisher noted that OpenAI has 700 employees. Several of them, including Chief Technical Officer Mira Murati (who held the company's top job on an interim basis for less than a weekend), wrote on X early Monday that "OpenAI is nothing without its people." Breaking: 505 of 700 employees @OpenAI tell the board to resign.

The new interim CEO of OpenAI suggested earlier this year that artificial intelligence holds a level of potential risk for humankind that "should cause you to s**t your pants." Emmett Shear, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitch, was appointed over the weekend to lead OpenAI after its board of directors ousted its longtime CEO Sam Altman in a shock firing on Friday. In a June interview on "The Logan Bartlett Show" podcast, Shear said he feared that AI technology could evolve until it is smart enough to design artificial intelligence on its own, "fully self-improve itself" and outsmart humans. "That kind of intelligence is just an intrinsically very dangerous thing," he said. Human beings are the dominant form of life on this planet, pretty much entirely because we're smarter than the other creatures now."

OpenAI may grab all the headlines, but Amazon has been quietly toiling on AI across all its divisions and even using AI-powered robots in its warehouses. Now, in a bid to attract new talent, the company is launching a free program called "AI Ready," with the aim of providing generative AI training to two million people globally by 2025. Consisting of eight free courses, the classes will be available through Amazon's learning website and offered to non-Amazon employees as well. They'll teach people AI skills including the generative AI technology that powers ChatGPT and other language models. They're designed for beginners and advanced users in both tech and tech-adjacent roles.

OpenAI was in open revolt on Monday with more than 500 employees signing an open letter threatening to leave unless the board resigns and reinstates Sam Altman as CEO, along with cofounder and former president Greg Brockman. Altman was controversially fired by the board on Friday. "The process through which you terminated Sam Altman and removed Greg Brockman from the board has jeopardized all of this work and undermined our mission and company" the letter reads. "Your conduct has made it clear you did not have the competence to oversee OpenAI." Remarkably, the letter's signees include Ilya Sutskever, the company's chief scientist and a member of its board, who has been blamed for coordinating the boardroom coup against Altman in the first place.