What we’re reading (12/6)
“Ego, Fear And Money: How The A.I. Fuse Was Lit” (New York Times). “At the heart of this competition is a brain-stretching paradox. The people who say they are most worried about A.I. are among the most determined to create it and enjoy its riches. They have justified their ambition with their strong belief that they alone can keep A.I. from endangering Earth.”
“The Inside Story of Microsoft’s Partnership with OpenAI” (The New Yorker). “On the video call with Nadella, Microsoft executives began outlining possible responses to Altman’s ouster. Plan A was to attempt to stabilize the situation by supporting Murati, and then working with her to see if the startup’s board might reverse its decision, or at least explain its rash move. If the board refused to do either, the Microsoft executives would move to Plan B: using their company’s considerable leverage—including the billions of dollars it had pledged to OpenAI but had not yet handed over—to help get Altman reappointed as C.E.O., and to reconfigure OpenAI’s governance by replacing board members. Someone close to this conversation told me, ‘From our perspective, things had been working great, and OpenAI’s board had done something erratic, so we thought, let’s put some adults in charge and get back to what we had.’”
“OpenAI Employees Really, Really Did Not Want To Go Work For Microsoft” (Insider). “One current OpenAI employee admitted that, despite nearly everyone on staff signing up to follow Altman out the door, ‘No one wanted to go to Microsoft.’ This person called the company ‘the biggest and slowest’ of all the major tech companies — the exact opposite of how OpenAI employees see their startup.”
“McKinsey Shrinks New Partner Class By Roughly 35%” (Wall Street Journal). “As the economy has slowed, companies in a range of industries have been re-evaluating their corporate overhead and cutting white-collar jobs. That retrenchment appears to be having an effect on consulting demand. McKinsey early this year launched a restructuring that eliminated roughly 1,400 roles, among the firm’s biggest head-count reductions to date. The firm, along with rival Bain, also delayed start dates for new M.B.A. hires.”
“Wall Street CEOs Try To Convince Senators That New Capital Rules Will Hurt Americans As Well As Banks” (CNBC). “Wall Street CEOs on Wednesday pushed back against proposed regulations aimed at raising the levels of capital they’ll need to hold against future risks. In prepared remarks and responses to lawmakers’ questions during an annual Senate oversight hearing, the CEOs of eight banks sought to raise alarms over the impact of the changes. In July, U.S. regulators unveiled a sweeping set of higher standards governing banks known as the Basel 3 endgame…If unchanged, the regulations would raise capital requirements on the largest banks by about 25%, Dimon claimed.”
