Key takeaways
- Sam Altman and Greg Brockman transitioned from OpenAI to Microsoft amid internal turmoil.
- Mistral AI was founded by former top researchers from Google and Facebook.
- 2023 saw significant executive changes, creating AI-specific roles and prompting layoffs.
This year had its fair share of drama in the tech sector. New roles were created for AI-specific positions, and there were layoffs as researchers and executives moved on to new ventures. Some of these moves were dramatic, to say the least. Here is a list of the top moves made by some of the brightest minds in technology this year:
Sam Altman and Greg Brockman
Most notably, last month, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, both co-founders of OpenAI, joined Microsoft after Altman was abruptly fired, and Brockman quit in protest. This move followed a dramatic series of events at OpenAI, which included leadership changes and internal turmoil. These events occurred amid significant changes and internal challenges at OpenAI. This upheaval at OpenAI, which also involved replacing a newly appointed CEO within days, led to both joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team and then returning to OpenAI within days.
Mistral founders
The three founders of Mistral, the AI startup—Arthur Mensch (former researcher at Google DeepMind), Timothee Lacroix (former researcher at Facebook AI), and Guillaume Lample (former research scientist at Facebook AI)—moved on to build Mistral AI in May this year.
The founders, Arthur, Guillaume Lample, and Timothée Lacroix, met as students at École Polytechnique and École Normale Supérieure. They bring a blend of deep technical expertise and experience from working in leading AI labs. Arthur contributed to significant projects at DeepMind, while Guillaume and Timothée were instrumental in developing the LLaMa large language models.
Mistral AI focuses on foundational models with an open technology approach. The company released its first model, Mistral 7B, under an open-source Apache 2.0 license, available for free download.
Alexis Black Bjorlin
Alexis Black Bjorlin, previously Meta Platforms' Vice President of Infrastructure overseeing AI chip development, joined Nvidia. She is leading Nvidia's DGX Cloud business, renting servers with Nvidia GPUs to customers.
Bjorlin, a notable figure in the semiconductor and cloud sector, will report directly to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Her move follows departure from Meta in September this year. Bjorlin also serves on the boards of Digital Realty and the Global Semiconductor Association.
Ruth Porat
Ruth Porat, Alphabet and Google's long-standing CFO, is transitioning to a new role overseeing the company's "Other Bets" portfolio, as revealed in the recent second-quarter earnings report. Starting September 1, 2023, Porat will become the President and Chief Investment Officer of Alphabet and Google.
She will work closely with CEO Sundar Pichai, focusing on global investments and technological economic growth. She will continue as CFO in the interim, overseeing the 2024 and long-term capital planning, while a successor is selected.
Peter Deng
Peter Deng, who has a history of working at notable companies as Product Head, left Airtable to join OpenAI this year. He joined OpenAI as VP of Consumer Product, leading the product, design, and engineering teams responsible for ChatGPT. His goal is to make AI useful, accessible, and beneficial to everyone.
From developing new interaction paradigms to creating assistive capabilities that enhance productivity and creativity, he saw the opportunity to explore untapped areas.
Neal Mohan
Neal Mohan replaced Susan Wojcicki as the CEO of YouTube earlier this year. He served as the Chief Product Officer at YouTube for seven years. Neal discussed the emerging potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI), stating that AI was just beginning to surface and had the capability to 'reinvent video.' He added that while the platform was eager to develop these features, it planned to take its time to 'embrace this technology responsibly.'
Jerome Pesenti
Jerome Pesenti, Meta's VP of AI for four years in 2022. He left the company as it integrated AI teams across various product groups, moving away from a centralized AI organization. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth announced the reorganization, aiming to "leverage the newest AI technology at scale" within the company.
This year he founded Sizzle AI, a New York-based company focused on AI-driven direct-to-learner products. Sizzle AI recently secured $7.5 million in seed funding. Pesenti's background includes BenevolentAI, and IBM Watson, co-founding Vivisimo apart from his role at Meta. He also co-chaired a UK government-commissioned review on AI growth.
Jim Keller
Tenstorrent, a Toronto-based AI startup, reshuffled its leadership, appointing Jim Keller as CEO. The company, valued at $1 billion and backed by venture funding, views this change as aligning with Keller's role.
Keller, with experience in CPU core designs including AMD’s Zen and Tesla’s FSD, joined Tenstorrent in 2016. His leadership focuses on developing AI accelerators, such as the Grayskull chip, and entering the RISC-V space.
Reed Hastings
Reed Hastings, co-CEO and founder of Netflix, announced in January this year that he will step down from his role. The announcement, made via a company blog post, comes as part of a planned leadership transition. Netflix had appointed Ted Sarandos as co-CEO with Hastings in 2020, a move that formalized the company’s existing operational structure.
Following Hastings’ departure, Netflix will maintain its co-CEO structure with COO Greg Peters joining Sarandos. Hastings has voiced his trust in Sarandos and Peters to drive the company's growth. He will become Executive Chairman of the Board, a role similar to those undertaken by other tech company founders like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
