Who Is Emmett Shear, the New CEO Leading OpenAI?

Prominent Silicon Valley Figure Who Founded Twitch
Usually Warns of AI Development Risks
Past Remarks Controversial
To OpenAI Shareholder MS: "Sold My Soul During Internship"
Exposure to Wrong Adult Awareness... Negative Reviews on OpenAI's Damage Control

Emmett Shear, the new CEO leading OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, after the ousting of CEO Sam Altman, is an executive who views artificial intelligence (AI) as a potential existential threat to humanity. While he shares a similar perspective with the OpenAI board, his blunt speech and actions have led some to assess that he may not be suitable to steer OpenAI back on track following the chaos caused by Altman's sudden dismissal.

Shear was the co-founder and CEO of the video game streaming service Twitch. After graduating from Yale University in 2005, he founded Twitch in 2007 and spent virtually his entire career at the company. Even after Amazon acquired Twitch for $1 billion in October 2014, he continued as CEO until earlier this year when he left to spend time with his nine-month-old son. During Shear’s tenure, Twitch grew from a startup called Justin.tv (Twitch’s predecessor) into a giant company with over 30 million daily viewers.

Shear also worked as a partner at the startup accelerator Y Combinator, supporting emerging tech startups. Y Combinator was once led by Altman, and Shear has a connection to the program as well, having completed the Y Combinator program in 2005 before founding his first company, the calendar application Kiko.

A source familiar with the OpenAI board said, “He received strong recommendations from senior Silicon Valley figures,” adding, “Shear understood the mission and also recognized that employees were very unhappy, so he understood that there could be difficulties.”

Shear has also made statements warning about the risks of AI development. It is reported that the OpenAI board chose him as Altman’s successor because he shares this philosophical understanding of AI progress. In a post on X last September, he wrote, “I support slowing down the pace of AI development,” adding, “You cannot learn how to build safe AI without experimentation, and you cannot experiment without progress. But you should not sprint at full speed.” In a previous podcast interview, he described AI as “inherently very dangerous,” likening it to “a bomb that could destroy the universe.”

However, Shear is also known for criticizing Microsoft (MS), the largest shareholder that invested $13 billion in OpenAI, and for openly expressing controversial views on social media stemming from misguided perceptions of gender. With the company facing an existential crisis as employees threaten mass resignations, there are concerned voices that the arrival of Shear as a savior for OpenAI might not resolve the current turmoil but instead amplify CEO-related risks.

According to Bloomberg News, before joining OpenAI, Shear posted on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) in July, saying, “Every time I got paid as an intern at MS, it felt like I was receiving a part of my soul in the mail.” The news outlet pointed out that “Shear described his experience at MS as ‘selling his soul,’ effectively dissing the company’s biggest backer,” and noted that “Shear’s language is far from the polished rhetoric typical of Silicon Valley CEOs.” In August, he shared a Wikipedia article on X and wrote, “It seems that 40-60% of women have fantasies about rape or non-consensual sex,” adding, “Why do you think women don’t have sexual fantasies?”?revealing a distorted perception of sexuality without restraint.