The generative AI trickle-down effect:

Microsoft had a salary freeze in place for many regular employees.

Which made them grumpy.

Now, the freeze is ending for some staff.

Praise be to the AI gods! businessinsider.com/microsoft-plan… via @businessinsider Ashley Stewart

Sources: Bill Gates remains intimately involved in Microsoft's operations, advising on strategy, nurturing Microsoft's relationship with Sam Altman, and more (Ashley Stewart / Business Insider)

businessinsider.com/bill-gates-sti…

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A secret 'AI agent' memo to top Microsoft execs about 7 years ago

Private presentations by OpenAI at a 66,000-square-foot mansion near Seattle

An early preview of GPT-4 over dinner, the first presentation outside OpenAI

Here's the story of how Bill Gates never really left…

Despite staying out of public view at Microsoft since 2021, execs say Bill Gates is still closely involved in its operations — advising on strategy, reviewing products, recruiting high-level execs, and nurturing Microsoft's crucial relationship with OpenAI businessinsider.com/bill-gates-sti…

Microsoft is blocking employee access to Perplexity AI, one of its largest Azure OpenAI customers businessinsider.com/microsoft-bloc… via @businessinsider Ashley Stewart

You need GPUs to train huge AI models

Microsoft+OpenAI are doing the biggest probably

Here's Microsoft's internal target for GPUs this year

It's big
businessinsider.com/microsoft-gpu-… via @businessinsider Ashley Stewart

Microsoft has a target to amass 1.8 million AI chips by the end of 2024, tripling its supply, according to an internal document: businessinsider.com/microsoft-gpu-…

New w/Ashley Stewart: Amazon has updated/formalized its internal policy on using third-party genAI apps.

'We should be sure not to use it for confidential Amazon work.'

businessinsider.com/leaked-amazon-…

Rubén Caballero, the ex-Apple VP of engineering who Microsoft hired to work on hardware, has left the company: businessinsider.com/apple-exec-mic…

New from the weekend w/ Ashley Stewart: Amazon employees say the company is using “quiet firing” tactics to cut headcount, which is leading to a huge “brain drain”

businessinsider.com/amazon-jobs-la…

Internal Amazon messages suggest layoffs are more widespread than Twitch and Prime Video, affecting roles in Amazon Pay and marketing businessinsider.com/internal-messa…

A leaked presentation reveals how Microsoft built one of its top generative AI products, from cherry picking outputs to pitching government customers businessinsider.com/microsoft-cher…

How do you invest $13 billion in another company, and have rights to 49-90% of its future profit, without controlling it?

Microsoft put on a masterclass in financial and PR engineering with its investments in OpenAI.

Mostly designed to exert control while adhering to the…

OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever hired himself a lawyer businessinsider.com/openai-cofound… via @businessinsider Kali Hays Ashley Stewart Darius Rafieyan Shona Ghosh

OpenAI's Ilya Sutskever hasn't been seen around the office or heard from much since the playing a role in Sam Altman's firing, and others are picking up his responsibilities, insiders told us. He also hired his own lawyer who specializes in litigation. businessinsider.com/openai-cofound…

Paraphrasing from Microsoft's annual shareholder meeting today:

Listen up everyone.

We just want to make this abundantly clear.

That chaos over at OpenAI last month.

You don't have to worry.

Keep coming to Microsoft because we are actually not that connected to OpenAI.…

After Sam Altman was fired from OpenAI, employees threatened to accept a blanket offer from Microsoft. Insiders told Kali Hays, Darius Rafieyan, and me it was a last resort for Microsoft, and a bluff from OpenAI employees who did not want to work there. businessinsider.com/openai-employe…

It's quitting time for several Amazon employees, especially over at AWS businessinsider.com/amazon-aws-emp… via Business Insider Ashley Stewart

Microsoft security boss Charlie Bell named a new chief information security officer and a new role for current CISO Bret Arsenault. Employees expected deputy CISO Aanchal Gupta to be Arsenault's replacement, but Gupta is leaving Bell's org, memo shows. businessinsider.com/internal-micro…

There seems to be an uptick in Amazon employees quitting right now, at least on one internal Slack channel, where some have posted messages saying they've leaving over a strict RTO mandate, layoffs, and 'lack of respect:' businessinsider.com/amazon-aws-emp…