The Tech Veteran Tapped to Replace Sam Altman at OpenAI
- Emmett Shear has advocated slowing down AI’s development
- Shear replaced Sam Altman as interim head of OpenAI on Sunday
Emmett Shear.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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When Emmett Shear got the call on Sunday, he’d been taking a break from running things to be a stay-at-home dad. Now the executive who created the world’s pre-eminent livestreaming service finds himself in the center of the battle over the future of artificial intelligence as OpenAI’s new impresario.
Shear, who over 12 years built Twitch from a niche platform into an entertainment powerhouse owned by Amazon.com Inc., said it only took him a few hours to decide to jump into the fray after OpenAI’s board shocked the global tech industry by firing co-founder Sam Altman from its top job.