Sam Altman, the Microsoft Bull Case, OpenAI and AI Live Players - The Riff with Byrne Hobart

This is a bonus episode for Econ 102 listeners of The Riff with Byrne Hobart and Erik Torenberg, recorded on Monday night 11/20, discussing 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 The Riff is a new podcast from the Turpentine podcast network. Subscribe to The Riff: https://link.chtbl.com/theriff We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chief of Staff, EA, Head of Special Projects, Investment Associate, and more. For a list of JDs, check out: eriktorenberg.com. -- Sponsors: GIVEWELL | DAFFY | NETSUITE | SECUREFRAME Have you ever wondered where your donation could have the most impact? GiveWell has now spent over 15 years researching charitable organizations and only directs funding to the highest impact opportunities they’ve found in global health and poverty alleviation. Make informed decisions about high-impact giving. If you’ve never donated through GiveWell before, you can have your donation matched up to $100 before the end of the year, or as long as matching funds last. To claim your match, go to https://givewell.org and pick “Podcast” and enter Econ 102 at checkout. Daffy is the most modern and accessible donor-advised fund, making it easier to put money aside for charity. You can make your tax-deductible contributions all at once or set aside a little each week or month. And you don’t just have to donate cash, you can easily contribute stocks, ETFs, or crypto. Plus, you never have to track receipts from your donations again. It’s free to get started and Econ 102 listeners get $25 towards the charity of their choice. Daffy is offering Econ 102 listeners a free $25 for the charity of their choice when they join Daffy https://www.daffy.org/econ102 NetSuite has 25 years of providing financial software for all your business needs. More than 36,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, gaining visibility and control over their financials, inventory, HR, eCommerce, and more. If you’re looking for an ERP platform head to NetSuite http://netsuite.com/102 and download your own customized KPI checklist. Secureframe: the only compliance automation platform with AI capabilities that help customers speed up cloud remediation and security questionnaires. Get 20% off your first year of Secureframe by mentioning "The Riff" during your free demo: https://secureframe.com/riff -- LINKS: Byrne's writing: https://thediff.co -- X / TWITTER: @eriktorenberg @byrnehobart -- TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Introduction from Erik (00:50) Non obvious thoughts about governance and legal structures (03:50) Could the board have found out something about Sam? (05:00) Tech’s online coordination and choosing sides (06:20) Why haven’t the OpenAI board shared their reasoning? (12:20) Are they going to bring Sam back? (15:20) What should OpenAI’s pivot be? (17:35) Sponsor: Secureframe (18:40) Analyzing Microsoft's moves and the sweetheart deal (22:00) Satya's succession plans (25:05) OpenAI's unique governance structure (28:10) Why Byrne is long on Microsoft (36:00) What explains Microsoft's turnaround? (38:15) Meta and Google (44:20) Which of these companies Byrne would short: Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft (46:20) Was this a coup from the Effective Altruism movement? This show is produced by Turpentine: a network of podcasts, newsletters, and more, covering technology, business, and culture — all from the perspective of industry insiders and experts. We’re launching new shows every week, and we’re looking for industry-leading sponsors — if you think that might be you and your company, email us at erik@turpentine.co.