The lawsuit says that OpenAI has shifted to a for-profit model focused on commercializing its AGI research with Microsoft, the world’s most valuable company.
“This was a stark betrayal of the Founding Agreement.”The lawsuit follows Musk voicing displeasure with OpenAI’s shift in priorities in the past year.
For the first several years, Musk was the largest contributor to OpenAI, the lawsuit adds.
He alleges OpenAI and Microsoft have improperly licensed GPT-4 despite agreeing OpenAI’s AGI capabilities would remain non-profit and dedicated to humanity.
Musk is seeking to compel OpenAI to adhere to its original mission and bar from monetizing technologies developed under its non-profit for the benefit of OpenAI executives or partners like Microsoft.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and majority owner of Paytm Payments Bank, has stepped down from the board of the troubled unit days after the Indian regulator signalled continuity at the financial firm Paytm.
Paytm Payments Bank said Monday it was reconstituting the board of directors at the Paytm Payments Bank, an associate of Paytm, with the appointment of four executives — ex-Central Bank of India Chairman Srinivasan Sridhar, retired IAS officer Shri Debendranath Sarangi, former executive director of Bank of Baroda Shri Ashok Kumar Garg, and Retd.
The appointment follows the Indian central bank penalizing Paytm Payments Bank, in which Sharma owns a 51% stake, with severe business restrictions.
(Paytm owned a 49% stake in Paytm Payments Bank.)
TechCrunch reported early this month that the Indian central bank has weighed ordering a board shakeup at Paytm Payments Bank and removing some of the company officials, including Paytm founder Sharma.
Meta’s external advisory group, its Oversight Board, announced today that it is expanding its scope to Threads along with Facebook and Instagram to scrutinize Meta’s content moderation decisions.
This means if users on Threads are unsatisfied with Meta’s decision on issues like content or account takedown, they can appeal to the Oversight Board.
Having independent accountability early on for a new app such as Threads is vitally important,” Oversight Board co-chair Helle Thorning-Schmidt said in a statement.
In 2018, Mark Zuckerberg formally talked about having an independent oversight board for the first time.
The Oversight Board has ruled on some important cases over the years.
Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal has resigned from the e-commerce group’s board, the two said Saturday.
Sachin Bansal, the Bengaluru-headquartered startup’s other co-founder, left the board in 2018 after scuffle with the investors.
Binny Bansal, who reserved the rights to stay on Flipkart’s board for as long as he preferred, cited conflict of interest with his new venture as the reason for the move.
“I am proud of the Flipkart Group’s achievements over the past 16 years.
After leaving Flipkart, Sachin Bansal founded Navi, a financial services firm that is looking to go public.
OpenAI has responded to a letter sent by the Congressional Black Caucus that flagged the lack of diversity on its board.
OpenAI’s response letter, which TechCrunch saw, was dated January 5 and signed by CEO Sam Altman and Chairman of the Board Bret Taylor.
The OpenAI board has received criticism for its lack of gender and racial diversity since its reconfiguration after Altman’s ousting and prompt return in November.
In mid-December, CBC Chairs Rep. Emanuel Cleaver and Rep. Barbara Lee sent a letter to OpenAI, asking it to “move expeditiously” in diversifying its board.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment regarding its response letter or its plans to diversify its board.
Top executives report to the CEO, the CEO answers to the board, and the board serves at the whim of the shareholders.
On Sunday evening, the oil supermajor filed a lawsuit in federal court asking for permission to ignore a shareholder resolution at its next annual meeting.
The new shareholder resolution calls on the oil company to reduce its Scope 3 emissions or those that result from the use of its products.
Other shareholders tended to be deferential to management, letting them run their business as they saw fit.
But as shareholder primacy took root in the public consciousness, more shareholders began to exercise their rights.
This week’s Pitch Deck Teardown comes to you from the PCB-laden confines of CES in Las Vegas.
Today, we’re looking at the slide deck that video analytics firm Qortex used to raise a $10 million seed round.
To be honest, I’m a little surprised the company managed to raise money at all with this pitch deck, but the fact that it did manage to raise $10 million is a good reminder that the deck is only a part of the puzzle.
In the rest of this teardown, we’ll take a look at three things Qortex could have improved or done differently, along with its full pitch deck!
Three things that could be improvedAbove, I noted the glaring absence of several key slides that investors usually like to see in a pitch deck.
Twilio’s CEO and co-founder, Jeff Lawson, is stepping down from his role and his seat on the company’s board, following months of pressure from activist investors and several quarters of slowing revenue growth.
Khozema Shipchandler, Twilio’s president and a former GE denizen, is taking over as CEO.
While the timing of the move was a surprise, it’s not a massive shock to see Lawson heading for the exits.
Investors have long made clear their discontent with Twilio’s recent performance, and at some point, either the results improve or something changes at the top.
First, activist pressure on companies is not something that can always be ameliorated by a board shakeup or smaller changes to operations.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a complaint alleging that SpaceX illegally fired eight employees who wrote and distributed an open letter with workplace concerns.
Circulated in June 2022, the open letter called out how SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk’s public behavior was harming the company’s reputation.
At the time, Business Insider alleged that SpaceX paid a $250,000 settlement to a flight attendant that Elon Musk sexually harassed.
As a result of its complaint, the NLRB regional director in Los Angeles will seek to arrive at a settlement with SpaceX.
If SpaceX doesn’t settle, the company will face a hearing before an administrative law judge in March.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have written to the United States’ Acting Secretary of Labor, Julie Su, expressing concerns over the disproportionate impact tech layoffs could have on Black workers, according to a letter seen by TechCrunch.
More than 240,000 jobs have been eliminated this year due to layoffs in the tech industry.
The worry here is that the “last in, first out” approach to tech layoffs commonly employed at companies may impact new, less senior and “non-essential” employees, who are most likely to be minorities.
“We’ve seen that Black, Brown, and women tech workers have borne the brunt of layoffs while companies have enjoyed billion-dollar profits,” Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, co-chair of the CBC, told TechCrunch.
The Department of Labor and Su did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
