Some of the biggest events in the tech industry calendar are the developer conferences put on by the large tech companies. Think Steve Jobs introducing new versions of the iPhone or Mark Zuckerberg demonstrating new AR hardware. These conferences set the direction for the big tech companies, which in many ways sets the direction for the rest of the industry, and ultimately directs which technologies ends up in our hands as consumers.
The artificial intelligence company OpenAI joined the ranks of the tech giants with their very first developer conference earlier this month. This summary of the conference and the products they launched is even more interesting in the context of what has happened next – OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO, Sam Altman, was fired by the board. He is alleged to have mislead the board, over what remains unclear, although information is breaking pretty quickly so we may learn more between the time we write this and when you read it.
OpenAI’s technology has been nothing short of revolutionary. ChatGPT introduced the world to generative AI and large language models. Their generative image product, Dall-E, is less celebrated but just as revolutionary. And Sam Altman has helped the company become one of the most valuable privately-held technology companies at $86 billion.
In Sam Altman’s presentation at OpenAI’s developer conference he announced improvements to ChatGPT, including the ability for the AI to ‘see’ and ‘speak’ by enabling it to process images and introducing text-to-speech functionality.
There are so many questions swirling around OpenAI after the news of Sam Altman’s firing over the weekend. Perhaps the only thing not in question is their core product, ChatGPT, which reportedly has more than 180 million users and generates more than 1.5 billion website visits each month. Whoever takes over from Sam Altman will have big shoes to fill.
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