In today’s issue we discuss Snoop Dogg is giving up smoking weed, AI Fanboy Sam Altman got fired from OpenAI, Chinese researchers create implantable wireless devices in humans, Blue Origin crews to get new 'official ballpoint' pens, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen Does His Best Elvis Presley Impression.

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Unveiling the Astonishing Numbers Behind Thanksgiving Celebrations

Business

He was the AI Fanboy who could do no wrong, until Sam “Icarus” Altman flew too close to the AI Sun and the board of OpenAI clipped his wings. WTF is going on with OpenAI?

First, a tiny bit of history, then I promise we’ll get to what’s going on today, which will probably be old by the time you hear this due to the ever-changing nature of this story. If you thought things in the tech world moved fast, wait until you get a load of AI news!

Sam Altman was 1 of 3 co-founders of OpenAI, along with Elon Musk who was a major funder of this non-profit (yes that’s right, OpenAI is actually a non-profit but this past Summer they created a for-profit corporation under their non-profit umbrella. It’s all very confusing, but stack with me).

Sam was CEO of OpenAI, and he assumed the Steve Job’s-esque like figurehead role of being the face of AI, cozying up to world leaders and making the rounds at tech events, while rubbing shoulders with tech celebrities including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and the afore mentioned Twitter (I mean X), Tesla, and SpaceXCEO Elon Musk.

What happened on Friday, November 17 was nothing short of a Board coup. They fired Sam, and his co-founder Greg Brockman resigned in protest. And the board this all of this very underhandedly, without letting anyone know about this until nearly the exact minute news broke. This means Microsoft, who has invested $13 billion dollars in OpenAI, found out about the firing of Sam Altman when the rest of the world did; not a good way to handle investor relations if you ask me.

Then over the weekend, while heads were rolling, other investors in OpenAI got pissed and began starting rumors that Sam Altman was going to start a new AI company, and that they would all invest in it, including Microsoft. Well that news didn’t go down well with the board, who seemed to be practically light shareholder value on fire and were poised to burn the entire company down to the ground.

It’s still not completely clear why the board of OpenAI even fired Sam Altman, but I’m guessing we’ll find out in the coming weeks. On Sunday afternoon it was reported that the board was having a change of heart, and had invited Sam back to the office to discuss resuming his role as CEO.

Apparently that meeting didn’t go as the board had planned (if they are even bothering to have any plan at this point).

As I was writing this news broke that Microsoft had actually offered both Sam Altman and Greg Brockman roles at Microsoft, which they accepted.

Now OpenAI has announced their 3rd CEO in as many days. On Friday they fired Sam Altman, appointed then CTO Mira Murati as the role of interim CEO which it turns out she held for 2 days, before going back to her role as OpenAI’s Chief Technology Officer. This morning OpenAI announced that Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Amazon’s streaming service Twitch, will join OpenAI as the latest interim CEO. The word “interim” is doing a lot of work in that last sentence.

So what’s next for OpenAI’s revolving door of CEOs? WTF does anyone know at this point.

OpenAI executive shakeup raises concerns about the future of AI

Sam Altman joins Microsoft as OpenAI names its third CEO in 3 days

Tech

The line between tech and biology seems to get a little blurrier every day with Chinese researchers announcing they’ve created a wireless biodegradable charger that does not require removal and can be safely implanted inside the human body.

I mean, this is practically a scene right out of William Gibson’s book Neuromancer.

We’ve been implanting pacemakers into humans since 1958, but these have always needed an external power source, or at the very least have long lasting batteries.

There was some recent reporting of researchers working on a way to harness human being’s heartbeat as an energy source, but the implementation of this technology is still years away. Now researchers have made advancements in the use of wireless energy source to bean energy into a person’s body to power medical devices ranging from pacemakers to monitors for glucose or drug delivery.

Sign me up when the Borg assimilation begins.

Chinese researchers create a wireless charger for implants

Space

There’s an old urban legend of how NASA spent millions on creating a pen that could write in space with zero gravity during the great space race with the Russians. As the story goes, NASA spent the equivalent of $9.29 million in today’s dollars on the development of a pen that could write in space, where there’s no gravity to feed ink into the pen’s ballpoint. It turns out this story is a bit of a wives tale, as it was actually a private company named Fisher that developed the pen with their own money, but it sure is a good story. Want to know what the Russians did while the U.S. was investing millions to develop a space pen? They just used pencils.

Why am I bothering to tell you this story? Well, it turns out 58 years later Fisher has come out with a new space pen to fly with Blue Origin crews as 'official ballpoint' pen on Blue Origin missions.

Fisher Space Pens to fly with Blue Origin crews as 'official ballpoint'

Entertainment

It seems the Godfather of Smoking Weed is quitting the habit, well at least the smoking part. Snoop Dogg has announced he’s giving up smoking marijuana, don't worry he’s still going to consume it via editables and vaping.

In a post to his 82.5 million followers on Instagram Calvin Broadus, better known as Snoop Dogg, announced that “After much consideration & conversation with my family, I’ve decided to give up smoke. Please respect my privacy at this time.”

Snoop Dogg has an estimated net worth of $150 million, and has been an active investors in numerous companies including Klarna, Robinhood, MoonPay, Yuga Labs (the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs), a pot dispensary software company named Dutchie, a cannabis business loan provider named Bespoke Financial, and Snoop's own media platform called Merry Jane. He’s also a co-founder of Casa Verde Capital, one of the first funds established to focus on the cannabis industry.

Snoop Dogg has created 19 studio albums, 15 collaborative albums, 17 compilation albums, 3 extended play albums, 25 mixtapes, and 175 singles. He has sold over 12.5 million albums in the United States, and 37 million albums worldwide. To top that off he’s had 14 Top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100.

In February of 2022 Snoop Dogg bought Death Row Records (for a rumored $50 million, but not exact figures have been reported) from the private equity firm Blackstone’s MNRK Music Group, and later completed a deal to buy the label’s recordings catalog.

Now that Snoop Dogg is giving up smoking my hope is he can be an inspiration to the 28.3 million adults in the U.S. who still smoke. Cigarette smoking cost the U.S. more than $600 billion in 2018, including more than $240 billion in healthcare spending and nearly $372 billion in lost productivity.

So if Snoop Dogg, a man who built his career and reputation on smoking week can give up smoking, then there’s hope for those 28.3 million to stop smoking too.

Snoop Dogg says he is giving up marijuana – or at least, smoking it

Sports

Well, the Las Vegas Formula 1 Grand Prix has come and gone, and as everyone predicted Max Verstappen was again victorious winning the inaugural race, but it wasn’t his winning that everyone is talking about. It’s his singing.

After taking the checkered flag Max Verstappen could be heard singing the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presely’s famous “Viva Las Vegas' over the team radio. He seemed to be in great spirits, and definitely changed his tune about the race, even if he can’t carry a tune to save his life, but I digress. The Red Bull team drivers, Max Verstappen and Sergio “Checo” Pérez, even wore Elvis-inspired trademark bedazzled driving suits for the race. File that under ‘When in Vegas’.

Max Verstappen made headlines heading into the race for describing the event as “99% show, 1% sport.” So yea, Max isn’t a fan of anything that goes on around race weekend except the actual race, and apparently heading to the club afterwards.

With Max Verstappen crossing the finish line 1st, we then saw Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc take 2nd place, and Red Bull’s Sergio “Checo” Pérez taking 3rd place on the podium. On their ride to the medal ceremony Max Verstappen was in great spirits, asking his fellow winner if they should skip the awards and just head right to the club, to presumably celebrate without all the pomp and circumstances, which Max isn’t a fan of, but he definitely loved him some Vegas and Elvis this weekend!

‘Viva Las Vegas,’ sings Max Verstappen as he wins thrilling race

So much news, so little time. Until tomorrow we’re signing out.

— Chris