A senior OpenAI manager emphasised on Tuesday that it's time to “get back to shipping” products. This is part of an overarching effort to redirect the company's focus towards developing software and forging partnerships, moving away from the speculation surrounding Sam Altman's potential return to the chief executive role after being summarily fired by the board on Friday.
In a message to OpenAI employees on Tuesday, Peter Deng, a vice president of product, said that “we decided that the best way to channel our energy” is developing products, according to a note reviewed by Bloomberg.
The memo was drafted in an effort to spread the message that OpenAI is still open for business, and comes as its customers have grown worried about tumult at the company, according to a person familiar with the decision making.
Many OpenAI clients have sought reassurances that the company remains operational even as it races to figure out who its next chief executive will be and prevent its employees from staging a mass resignation.
Mr Deng also said that the company would make its Voice product available for free for ChatGPT users, a move it also posted about on social media platform X. The Voice feature lets the chatbot respond to spoken questions and commands with its own speech. That release had been previously planned, according to a source.
Making matters worse for OpenAI on Tuesday, its best-known product, the chatbot ChatGPT, was unavailable to some users during the afternoon. According to a company webpage that tracks the status of its online services, ChatGPT and OpenAI’s application programming interface services experienced a partial power cut starting after 2pm Pacific time.
OpenAI’s status tracker posted that the issue causing the power cut “has been identified and a fix is being implemented”, though it hadn’t been resolved hours later. In a post on X, a member of the company’s developer relations staff, Logan Kilpatrick, acknowledged the issue and said it “should be resolved shortly”.
Mr Deng’s message to staff, which was posted on an internal Slack channel, was upbeat. He said that employees could order pizza and expense it. Most of them aren’t in the office because the company has Thanksgiving week off. “Raise a slice and share a photo in the thread so we can enjoy this moment together,” Mr Deng wrote. He signed off, “One team, one mission” with a pizza emoji.
The fate of OpenAI has been in limbo for days, starting with the board of directors’ shock firing of Mr Altman on Friday, followed by high-stakes negotiations to get him reinstated. Almost all of the company’s employees have said they would resign from OpenAI if Mr Altman were not brought back, among other demands.
People familiar with the negotiations around possibly returning Mr Altman to the company have said that the groups want to reach a resolution before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Stressing that the company was still operating despite the boardroom chaos, Mr Deng pointed to a post on X from chief operating officer Brad Lightcap, in which he emphasised OpenAI’s commitment to customers. In the post, Mr Lightcap was responding to the suggestion that competitors were trying to capitalise on the company’s leadership upheaval to poach its business.
Mr Deng said in the note that the company met with Boston Consulting Group on Tuesday morning to discuss expanding its partnership with OpenAI, and that BCG complimented its “mojo with culture and leadership”.
In the memo, Mr Deng said, “We are grateful to have heard from dozens of customers who emphasised their support.”
The Book of Collateral Damage
Sinan Antoon
(Yale University Press)
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The biog
Title: General Practitioner with a speciality in cardiology
Previous jobs: Worked in well-known hospitals Jaslok and Breach Candy in Mumbai, India
Education: Medical degree from the Government Medical College in Nagpur
How it all began: opened his first clinic in Ajman in 1993
Family: a 90-year-old mother, wife and two daughters
Remembers a time when medicines from India were purchased per kilo
The language of diplomacy in 1853
Treaty of Peace in Perpetuity Agreed Upon by the Chiefs of the Arabian Coast on Behalf of Themselves, Their Heirs and Successors Under the Mediation of the Resident of the Persian Gulf, 1853
(This treaty gave the region the name “Trucial States”.)
We, whose seals are hereunto affixed, Sheikh Sultan bin Suggar, Chief of Rassool-Kheimah, Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon, Chief of Aboo Dhebbee, Sheikh Saeed bin Buyte, Chief of Debay, Sheikh Hamid bin Rashed, Chief of Ejman, Sheikh Abdoola bin Rashed, Chief of Umm-ool-Keiweyn, having experienced for a series of years the benefits and advantages resulting from a maritime truce contracted amongst ourselves under the mediation of the Resident in the Persian Gulf and renewed from time to time up to the present period, and being fully impressed, therefore, with a sense of evil consequence formerly arising, from the prosecution of our feuds at sea, whereby our subjects and dependants were prevented from carrying on the pearl fishery in security, and were exposed to interruption and molestation when passing on their lawful occasions, accordingly, we, as aforesaid have determined, for ourselves, our heirs and successors, to conclude together a lasting and inviolable peace from this time forth in perpetuity.
Taken from Britain and Saudi Arabia, 1925-1939: the Imperial Oasis, by Clive Leatherdale
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
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MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Greenwood 77')
Everton 1 (Lindelof 36' og)
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, last-16 second leg
Paris Saint-Germain (1) v Borussia Dortmund (2)
Kick-off: Midnight, Thursday, March 12
Stadium: Parc des Princes
Live: On beIN Sports HD
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Where to buy
Limited-edition art prints of The Sofa Series: Sultani can be acquired from Reem El Mutwalli at www.reemelmutwalli.com
TOURNAMENT INFO
Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier
Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Result
2.15pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,950m; Winner: Majestic Thunder, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Satish Seemar (trainer).
2.45pm: Handicap Dh80,000 1,800m; Winner: Tailor’s Row, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
3.15pm: Handicap Dh85,000 1,600m; Winner: Native Appeal, Adam McLean, Doug Watson.
3.45pm: Handicap Dh115,000 1,950m; Winner: Conclusion, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi.
4.15pm: Handicap Dh100,000 1,400m; Winner: Pilgrim’s Treasure, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
4.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,400m; Winner: Sanad Libya, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
5.15pm: Handicap Dh90,000 1,000m; Winner: Midlander, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs: 2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera
Price, base: Dh1.2 million
Engine: 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 725hp @ 6,500pm
Torque: 900Nm @ 1,800rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.3L / 100km (estimate)
Russia's Muslim Heartlands
Dominic Rubin, Oxford
Uefa Nations League
League A:
Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, France, England, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Iceland, Croatia, Netherlands
League B:
Austria, Wales, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Turkey
League C:
Hungary, Romania, Scotland, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia, Albania, Norway, Montenegro, Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania
League D:
Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Latvia, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Malta, Andorra, Kosovo, San Marino, Gibraltar
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
