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90% of OpenAI employees threaten to quit
Spotlight: Amazon launches AI Ready
Jack Shields
November 22, 2023
Welcome back!
The OpenAI drama is still this week’s top story as nearly all of the company’s employees have threatened to leave for Microsoft.
Let’s get right to it.
In today’s Daily Update:
🗞️ OpenAI employees threaten to leave for Microsoft
🤖 Nations debate limits on AI killer drones
📸 Amazon launches ‘AI Ready’ initiative
🚨 AI Roundup: Three quick hits
Read time: 2 minutes
TOP STORY
🗞️ OpenAI employees threaten to leave for Microsoft
Source: Adobe Firefly
Nearly all of OpenAI’s employees have signed a letter threatening to leave the company for Microsoft.
The details:
More than 700 of OpenAI’s 770 employees signed a letter demanding that the current board resigns and reappoints Sam Altman as CEO.
Chief scientist Ilya Sutskever is among the letter’s signatories. Sutskever initially voted to oust Altman on Friday.
Altman has publicly signaled that he could return to OpenAI.
OpenAI’s board reportedly approached rival Anthropic about a potential merger. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei declined.
Why it matters: Just a week ago OpenAI was one of the most promising startups in Silicon Valley with a valuation of close to $90 billion. Its collapse could reshape the AI industry by forcing thousands of startups to find a new provider of AI technology.
AI INSIGHT
🤖 Nations debate limits on AI killer drones
Source: Edmund D. Fountain for the New York Times
Governments are negotiating proposals at the United Nations that would impose legally binding rules on the use of lethal autonomous weapons.
What you should know:
The U.S., Russia, Australia and Israel argue that no new international law is needed for now.
China wants to define legal limits so narrowly that they wouldn’t have any practical effect.
Last week officials from China and the U.S. discussed potential limits on the use of AI in decisions about deploying nuclear weapons.
The use of AI drones in Ukraine and the Middle East has intensified debates.
The relevance: AI technology could potentially reshape warfare by turning life and death decisions over to autonomous drones. There is an urgent need for international law that addresses the use of these systems.
BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
📸 Amazon launches ‘AI Ready’ initiative
Source: Amazon
Amazon just announced its AI Ready initiative in an effort to make AI education more accessible.
Key points:
Workers with AI skills earn up to 47% more in salaries according to a new AWS study.
Hiring AI-skilled talent is a priority for 73% of employers, but three out of four say they are unable to meet their AI talent demands.
AI Ready will provide free AI skills training to 2 million people globally by 2025. The initiative includes eight new and free AI and generative AI courses.
AWS will also provide over $12 million in generative AI scholarships to more than 50,000 high school and university students globally.
A look ahead: AI skills will be a necessity for job seekers in the coming years. Amazon’s initiative will prepare students and young professionals for the AI-powered workplaces of the future.
MORE TRENDING NEWS
🚨 AI Roundup: Three quick hits
Screenshot: One of many offensive movie posters generated by AI.
Level Up: Anthropic updates its Claude chatbot to accept up to 500 pages of input.
Trend Stopper: Microsoft blocks the term “Disney” on Bing’s image generator after a viral movie poster trend on social media.
Big Money: Nvidia demolishes Wall Street’s Q3 estimates.
THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY