Good Morning! First, OpenAI's board of directors has made the unexpected decision to remove Sam Altman from his CEO role, leading to turmoil and questions about the future. Meanwhile, Unity has announced new AI tools like Muse and Sentis at its Unite 2023 conference, showcasing innovations that could revolutionize game development. Finally, Dropbox and NVIDIA are teaming up to harness the power of AI, using custom models to improve productivity features like search and summarization for Dropbox users

— Forrest Knight & Meghanadh Vasireddy

OpenAI board of directors removes Sam Altman from CEO role

In a surprising turn of events, OpenAI's board of directors has removed Sam Altman from his role as CEO. Altman, a prominent figure in the AI industry, was ousted due to concerns about his communication with the board, which they claimed hindered their ability to exercise their responsibilities.

The decision has sent shockwaves through the tech industry, with many drawing parallels to Steve Jobs' ouster from Apple in 1985. The move has also led to a reshuffling within OpenAI, with Mira Murati, previously the company's Chief Technology Officer, named as interim CEO.

Altman's removal has sparked a series of resignations, including that of Greg Brockman, OpenAI's president and former board chairman. The board's decision has also led to discussions about Altman's potential return, with key leaders within OpenAI pushing for the board to resign and bring back Altman.

The board's decision to remove Altman has been attributed to a longstanding issue that divided the company. Altman's drive to transform OpenAI, initially a nonprofit organization, into a successful business clashed with board member concerns over the safety of AI tools.

Altman's departure has raised questions about the future of OpenAI, a company synonymous with AI due to its popular chatbot, ChatGPT. The company is currently in a state of uncertainty, with Altman reportedly considering starting a new company.

Despite the turmoil, OpenAI remains optimistic about Altman's potential return. Jason Kwon, the company's Chief Strategy Officer, has expressed optimism about Altman's return and has promised to share more updates soon.

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Unity Unveils AI Innovations and Unity 6 at Unite 2023

One of the highlights is the early access availability of Unity Muse, an AI-powered suite designed to simplify content creation for game developers. Unity Sentis, which allows developers to integrate complex AI data models into Unity Runtime, is in open beta and set to be released with Unity 6 in 2024.

Unity 6, the next major software release scheduled for 2024, promises advanced visuals with substantial performance enhancements, accelerated multiplayer game creation, and increased AI support. Unity aims to empower developers to push the boundaries of what’s possible with enhanced mobile features and innovative VR device support.

Despite the recent leadership transition, Unity is resolute in its commitment to ongoing projects and initiatives. As Unity hopes to put a tumultuous period behind it, the announcements this week signify the company's dedication to supporting creators across the game development cycle.

Unity's Unite 2023 conference was not just a showcase of technological advancements but a reflection of a company at a crossroads, poised to redefine its identity in the gaming and enterprise world. The AI Revolution in Unity, with tools like Muse and Sentis, represents a paradigm shift in development, suggesting that the era of the '10x developer' might soon become the new normal.

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Dropbox and NVIDIA Collaborate on AI-Powered Productivity Boost

Dropbox and NVIDIA have announced a partnership aimed at enhancing productivity for Dropbox users through the power of artificial intelligence (AI). The collaboration will expand Dropbox's AI capabilities, introducing new applications for personalized generative AI to improve search accuracy, streamline organization, and simplify workflows for customers managing their cloud content.

Dropbox plans to leverage NVIDIA's AI foundry, which includes AI Foundation Models, AI Enterprise software, and accelerated computing, to build custom models for its products. These include Dropbox Dash, a universal search tool, and Dropbox AI, a tool that allows users to ask questions and get summaries on large files.

"Recent advancements in generative AI are opening up a world of possibilities to improve knowledge work and address many of the pain points we all experience around organization, prioritization, and focus," said Dropbox CEO Drew Houston. NVIDIA's Founder and CEO Jensen Huang added, "Together, NVIDIA and Dropbox will pave the way for millions of Dropbox customers to accelerate their work with customized generative AI applications."

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Vite 5.0 is Released!

Vite 5.0 now uses Rollup 4, which already represents a substantial boost in build performance. It also introduces new options to enhance your dev server performance profile. This release is the result of long hours of work by their community of contributors, downstream maintainers, plugin authors, and the Vite Team.

Vite 5.0 focuses on cleaning up the API by removing deprecated features and streamlining several features to close long-standing issues. For most projects, the update to Vite 5 should be straightforward.

Vite has been gaining traction for its speed and simplicity, offering a faster and leaner development experience for modern web projects. It consists of a dev server that serves source files over native ES modules, with rich built-in features and fast Hot Module Replacement, and a build command that bundles code with Rollup, pre-configured to output highly optimized static assets for production.

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Fun Fact

ENIAC: The War's Math Wizard

During World War II, computer programming took an unexpected turn in history. The first digital computer, known as the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), was developed to calculate artillery firing tables for the United States Army. This mammoth machine, comprising thousands of vacuum tubes, was primarily used to perform complex trajectory calculations for artillery shells, enabling more precise and effective targeting during combat. Its creation marked a pivotal moment where programming emerged as a crucial tool in wartime, laying the groundwork for the future of computing and software development beyond military applications.

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