In the previous two editions I reported that Meta is forming an AI Superintelligence Team with Mark Zuckerberg personally overseeing recruitment, offering compensation packages and signing bonuses reaching tens of millions of dollars. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that “none of our best people” had taken Meta's offers, but it was later revealed that OpenAI had been countering them.
I also reported that Microsoft is considering walking away from negotiations with OpenAI over its corporate restructuring, and that the two companies have clashed over Microsoft's future equity stake and access to OpenAI's technology.
Since then the war between OpenAI and… well, everyone… has heated up. Here's what's gone down:
- It was revealed by The Information that OpenAI has been gearing up to take on Google and Microsoft with features that let people collaborate on documents and communicate via chat in ChatGPT. The new features would pit OpenAI more directly against Microsoft and Google in this arena and reflects Sam Altman's strategy to make ChatGPT a “supersmart personal assistant for work.”
- OpenAI acqui-hired the team behind Crossing Minds, a startup backed by Shopify, Index Ventures, and other VCs that provides AI recommendation systems to e-commerce businesses.
- Meta successfully poached a total of eight OpenAI researchers (and counting), as the company continues to outbid OpenAI for talent.
- The definition of AGI came into question by Microsoft executives. The contract between Microsoft and OpenAI stipulates that OpenAI will be able to limit Microsoft's access to its future technology once the company reaches “artificial general intelligence,” or AGI, and now Microsoft fears that Sam Altman will prematurely declare AGI to get out of their agreement early.
- Meanwhile, Microsoft salespeople are struggling to sell the company's Copilot AI assistant to corporations because many of their employees want to use ChatGPT — which they feel is more user friendly. (I agree.)
- Jason Rugolo, founder of hardware startup Iyo is suing OpenAI for infringing on its trademark of the name “io” in its hardware venture with Apple's former chief designer Jony Ive. Rugolo later blasted Altman for discussing the case publicly on X and said that he looks forward to competing with him fairly on product, “you just can't use our name.”
It's been a while since an American homegrown company has grown big enough to compete with Microsoft, Google, and Meta — let alone all at once! I hope they're ready…