Cyber Mondays and Cyber Tuesdays and Cyber Wednesdays… What then?
Katya's insights from OpenAI DevDay, key learnings from chaos between DevDay and Cyber Monday, and Katya's predictions for the future of AI and its impact on humanity.
It was Monday. I was saying hi to Sam Altman. Finally, I was at the right place at the right time.
When I attended OpenAI DevDay, OpenAI was THE company to bet on. It was OpenAI's first developer conference. I was one of the few who got an invite, and I felt grateful to attend.
On November 6th, during DevDay, the OpenAI CEO Sam Altman delivered a promising keynote speech alongside Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The audience applauded, and the excitement, both in the room and online, was palpable.
Builders started building.
Hope was sold.
Then, just 11 days later, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, was fired.
Sam, Satya, and their community were shocked 🤯. My own community was scared 😱. I hope these emojis cleared things up for you.
The past week has been a saga that people on Twitter/X have beaten to death. You probably already know that Sam was rehired on November 22nd. You might have even had to talk about it during Friendsgiving, or worse - Thanksgiving.
Despite being very busy at work, I am grateful for this plot twist that occurred this month. It provided me with valuable learning experiences, not only in the field of AI but also in leadership.
I asked myself a lot of questions like "what will happen first - I finish my short stories, advance in yoga, and finish my paintings - or AGI destroys us all?" I researched Q* and startups' governance structures. I built and broke things. I giggled a lot on Twitter/X (and got verified!).
Now, I am here to offer my unique insights from DevDay and the past few weeks and summarize what I have learned and built.
Why are my insights unique? I stand out in this AI world. I really stood out at DevDay, not just because of my long curly hair and floral dress. I am a woman, a refugee, and my full-time job is not being a developer.
My goal is to leave you feeling a little more curious and hopeful than when you started reading!
OpenAI DevDay
What is a DevDay?
A bunch of developers get together and nerd out. They get product updates and first access to tools.
What is OpenAI?
OpenAI is the company that made ChatGPT!
How did Katya get a seat?
Katya codes a little! Katya made a tool using OpenAI’s API. Katya works as Director of Product at a company that uses AI.
I applied because all these engineers sent me a link to the application, but then none of them who sent me the link got accepted themselves. It was very difficult to get accepted! I know more people who were rejected than those who got in.
Who was in attendance?
Really really smart people. The conference had a diverse mix of attendees - I had conversations with everyone from MIT students to CTOs of large companies, and of course, Sam.
I spotted some people from New York who were known in my communities as being “the smartest”.
Someone asked me, "Katya, were there any women?" and I was like, "Yeahhh!!!"
and then I looked at these photos:
You can make your own assumptions about the percentage of women present. However, it felt like there were more women compared to some other DevDay-like events I've attended!
What was the event like?
This was OpenAI's first DevDay! They did an amazing job for their first try!
What did I like?
The event was accessible to the average person, costing only 500 bucks instead of 15,000. They even gave us 500 credits back, essentially refunding the ticket price.
The event ran smoothly without any noticeable hiccups. The staff was well-prepared, and the demos and talks started on time. There was always food and drinks available.
The name tags were great. They only had your name and nothing else, so you couldn't tell if you were talking to the CEO of a large company or a PhD student from MIT. It made everyone feel equally important.
There were continuous demos where you could gather around a computer with other enthusiasts and collaborate on building something together. That was my favorite part.
The afterparty was fantastic, hosted in the de Young Museum. They had a variety of fun food options including sushi and a hot chocolate station. Live jazz music created a lively atmosphere, and everyone was friendly. I had a great time.
What could have been better?
There could have been more breakout sessions in smaller rooms, where participants could build something on their own computers. There was a lot of energy and enthusiasm for building, but not enough opportunities to do so. Perhaps the next event could be hosted in a space that has conference rooms, to allow for this hands-on experience.
What was announced?
GPT-4 Turbo model that is better cheaper and supports more documents
Multimodal capabilities in the platform such as vision, image creation (DALL·E 3), and text-to-speech (TTS).
Good for accessibility!
Better and cheaper APIs
also more control in APIs,, seeds + transparency , system_fingerprint
New Assistants API so developers can make assistive AI apps that have goals
GPT store!!!
We were told to build a GPT (our own specialized ChatGPT) and that there will be a public GPT store to find these.
We’d get revenue share from our GPT. Think App Store. You make an app there and then you can make money from it.
What words were not said?
GPT5
AGI
Q*
What was the energy like?
OpenAI felt like the unicorn, the valedictorian, the pick-me-girl everyone somehow liked, the nerd invited everywhere, the cheerleader who is also your friend, and the perfect clapping audience.
Everyone acted more positive than I anticipated!
Very few people seemed worried for their jobs or their life or other people’s lives.
The energy was people brainstorming what GPTs to create. People ran out of the conference to build GPTs.
What happened since DevDay?
People started building GPTs! It became a race.
Katya made GPTs too. Scroll to see!
Summary of the weekend after the firing, written by Ben Parr
Sam is back! Greg is back! Everyone is back!
OpenAI survived another week! Only tiny outages.
Friendsgiving in SF was saved. Thanksgiving everywhere else was worse.
Not to be confused with Q, an A.I. Chatbot that Amazon just released.
Black Friday Cyber Monday in e-commerce was more busy than ever before. All the news about AI didn’t stop people from going on websites, crashing the websites ,and putting in their credit cards and data online to get some new stuff.
What is a GPT?
GPT is your own specialized ChatGPT. You build your own ChatGPT without any coding necessary. You can keep it private or share it with everyone who uses GPT.
Katya’s GPTs:
Struggling with negative looping thoughts? My GPT will help you reframe them while having a friendly chat with you! https://chat.openai.com/g/g-B2oS5ohdK-reframe-your-thoughts
Don’t know what to say on dating apps? Try my Charm Advisor. https://chat.openai.com/g/g-lA6byDSOa-charm-advisor
Tired of ghosting? Don’t know how to say “no” while still being nice? Need to say “no” after that lukewarm first date? https://chat.openai.com/g/g-KmEJcYIHG-gentle-rejector
Other GPTs I’ve played with:
Matt’s Simpsons viral one https://chat.openai.com/g/g-tcmMldCYy-simpsonize-me
Ben’s 20 questions! fun! https://chat.openai.com/g/g-zZErHWdHM-20-questions-gpt
James & Kiely made one to teach men how to interior design. Send it to that guy friend with no furniture or art. https://chat.openai.com/g/g-0S6sjGkGd-mate-material
Next?
We were promising a GPT store. Right now, it’s very hard to find GPTs. No news on this yet.
We were promised revenue sharing. No update on this.
What is Q*?
We don’t know but it might be related to Q-learning!
Q-learning is when an AI model can learn and improve over time through trial and error by taking the next best step.
Hmm.. that’s what I do!
Why did all this happen?
To truly know what happened, one had to be in the room where it happened. However, I did speak to many people who know Sam about it.
Allegedly, OpenAI made a recent breakthrough that alarmed the board. This breakthrough is supposedly called Q*.
Reportedly, this breakthrough is one of the reasons why the board decided to remove Sam Altman.
The prevailing theory is that the board, which oversees OpenAI's nonprofit research, was concerned about the rapid progress of OpenAI's for-profit business.
A moment for empathy.
Let's consider all the individuals in the OpenAI community. They are highly intelligent and their daily conversations revolve around AI. They are well-versed in the latest advancements and understand the potential dangers of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) better than us. They carry a significant burden and have numerous fears. Many of them are publicly preparing for potential apocalyptic scenarios, investing substantial amounts of money in their preparations. Tensions are running high!
Now, imagine they have millions, if not more, to lose with every public mistake. They will have a very good life, unless they mess up greatly.
It doesn't require much to ignite an argument within this group, leading to escalation…
More Inside Scoops:
Grimes, a musician who happens to have children with Elon Musk, was at DevDay and spoke out about the importance of keeping AI Open. She even DJed at this event: Keep AI Open.
OpenAI employees at DevDay appeared like typical employees - a little anxious and a little proud. They are highly compensated (think $500,000 or more), yet still have concerns about job security and the future of their field. They expressed a desire for OpenAI to be profitable, as it is currently not profitable but highly valued.
OpenAI employees are genuinely nice individuals. They don't fit the stereotype of people building killer robots like in movies such as Terminator. OpenAI employees have good intentions.
The employees had a lot at stake that weekend... a significant amount of money.
They felt confused and upset in private.
However, in public, especially on social media, they stood together and posted supportive messages and hearts about OpenAI's leadership. Online, it truly seemed like the employees had confidence in Sam and in OpenAI.
Learnings from all this:
OpenAI is a non-profit that is controlling a for-profit through holding companies.
The non-profit side says they want to build safe AGI. The for-profit side say they also want that but also to make lots of money.
OpenAI is ahead in the AGI race and so whoever rules OpenAI, will rule AGI.
Responsible people stay responsible, even in chaos. The OpenAI team did not take the opportunity to stop working. They kept the APIs working. ChatGPT was working. I found this impressive, most of all.
Leadership matters.
I don't know anyone who quit OpenAI after all this happened, so something must have happened internally to smooth things over.
Employees now feel better and more motivated than ever before. If we had a DevDay tomorrow, it would be even more energetic.
Social media presence can save your company.
Sam, Satya, Greg, Mira, and Ilya all acted united on social media after the first day.
Hundreds of employees flooded X with supportive messages.
I was active on X all weekend, and it felt promising that regardless of the board or the company, whether it was OpenAI or another, these smart people would collaborate and find solutions to emerge victorious.
Now, the juicy questions.
Should AI move fast?
Cons for moving fast: destroy lives if the robots attack! We all saw the movies so this is a fear.
Pros for moving fast: save lives through advancements in science, healthcare, and climate change.
Should you fear for humanity?
Sure, go ahead!
The prospect of AGI becoming uncontrollable is intimidating. If it scares someone like Ilya, just imagine how much it would frighten us if we fully understood it. Sometimes, ignorance can be bliss.
Still, it’s important to maintain curiosity and continue learning and creating as much good as possible.
We need to focus on what we can do - we can learn how to use AI to save lives. We can regulate AI. We can make sure that many different types of people are working on AI.
To be honest, I heard about so many amazing ways that AI will help and save lives that I’m choosing to focus on that.
I encourage you to not focus on Terminator-type movies, but instead remember "2001: A Space Odyssey".
Forgot it? You can watch it now, until December, on Amazon Prime!
Yes, I can see some lives being destroyed.
I can also see some humans surviving and growing stronger than ever. SPACE BABIES!!!
For now, it's best to
avoid trips to Jupiter
practice talking with minimal mouth movement
refrain from being in an AI powered ship that you don't know how to turn off!
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With care,
Katya