The (Open)AI Apocalypse is Here

More than 70 percent of OpenAI’s employees signed a joint letter on Monday demanding that the company’s board of directors resign, capping a weekend fracas sparked by the board’s spontaneous decision to oust co-founder and CEO Sam Altman over a video call during lunch on Friday. Company president Greg Brockman quit the following day after discovering he was being forced out of the board.

“Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAI,” wrote 505 employees in a joint statement, notifying company heads that they intend to join Microsoft’s AI division as a fallback. “We will take this step imminently, unless all current board members resign, and the board appoints two new lead independent directors, such as Bret Taylor and Will Hurd, and reinstates Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.”

That demand for a mass resignation included the company’s chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, who helped orchestrate the coup against Altman.

“I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions,” Sutskever posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, shortly after the letter was issued. “I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we’ve built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.”

Altman’s dismissal followed a disagreement over the direction of the company’s research division, led by Sutskever, reported CNN. Company heads have denied that narrative. In a Friday letter, the board claimed that Altman had to go because the executive “was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.”

OpenAI has scrambled to replace Altman since his firing, naming several interim CEOs throughout the weekend before landing on ex-Twitch CEO Emmett Shear, who is tasked with the awkward yet tall order of mending the torn relationship between the company’s board, its employees, and its investors.

The company briefly entertained reinstating Altman before the Silicon Valley entrepreneur announced he had taken a job leading the in-house AI division at Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest financial backer.

OpenAI is worth nearly $100 billion. Artificial intelligence’s capabilities are currently more fantasy than reality, and yet programs like ChatGPT could prove to be among the most important technological developments of this era. The mess at OpenAI suggests that the people in charge of A.I. are barely capable of managing themselves, let alone a potentially transformative program.

Asked about X (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk’s antisemitic comments, Florida governor and struggling Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis shrugged.

During a Sunday interview on CNN, anchor Jake Tapper asked DeSantis if he condemned Musk’s comments. DeSantis insisted that he “did not see the comment”—despite the fact that Musk’s claim that Jews “push hatred” against white people had sent advertisers fleeing the platform.

“I know that Elon has had a target on his back ever since he purchased Twitter, because I think he’s taking it in the direction that a lot of people who are used to controlling the narrative don’t like,” the presidential hopeful said.

Tapper then read Musk’s tweet aloud, and DeSantis replied that he is concerned about antisemitism “across the board.” He pointed to recent legislation he signed to combat antisemitism on Florida college campuses. His efforts have resulted in a lawsuit for allegedly violating the First Amendment.

The University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine announced last week that it is suing DeSantis and university leaders for shuttering the group. University Chancellor Ray Rodrigues claimed that SJP provides “material support” to a “terrorist organization,” which the chapter says is untrue.

Later in Sunday’s interview, Tapper pointed out that DeSantis still hadn’t actually condemned Musk’s comments. DeSantis hedged once more.

“I know you tried to read it, I have no idea what the context is,” he said. “I know Elon Musk. I have never seen him do anything. I think he’s a guy that believes in America. I have never seen him indulge in any of that. So it’s surprising if that’s true, but I have not seen it. So I don’t want to sit there and pass judgment on the fly.”

An X user posted last week that Jewish communities have pushed “diabolical hatred against whites,” a neo-Nazi talking point. Musk replied, “You have said the actual truth.” About an hour later, he tried to claim he was only criticizing the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish nonprofit Musk has threatened to sue for monitoring hate speech on X. (ADL head Jonathan Greenblatt came to Musk’s defense over the comments, thanks in large part to his support for Israel.)

The next day, a report published by Media Matters found that X has been placing ads for brands including Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity next to posts that promote Hitler and Nazi beliefs.

Advertisers have fled the site in the wake of Musk’s comments and revelations that ads have been displayed on hateful, antisemitic posts.

Meanwhile, marketing leaders have started to urge X CEO Linda Yaccarino to resign. Yaccarino, who used to chair NBCUniversal’s global advertising division, was hired to help steady X from Musk’s tumultuous reign and woo advertisers back to the platform.

But now her former peers are warning her that she risks doing permanent damage to her reputation if she stays on.

“The issue is no longer about content adjacencies or content moderation,” Lou Paskalis, the founder and CEO of marketing firm AJL Advisory told Axios. “It’s simply that the owner is not someone marketers can do business with.”

A new survey of House members indicates that at least 60 Republicans intend to vote to expel Santos, Politico reported. That’s more than double the number who voted against him in another expulsion attempt earlier this month.

The sudden change of opinion follows the release of a scandalous, 56-page ethics report on the New York Republican, which found that he blew campaign funds on personal expenses, including Botox injections, trips to Atlantic City with his husband, and subscriptions on OnlyFans, an online content service primarily used by sex workers.

In order to remove him for good, Democrats will need to rally a unanimous vote from their party along with roughly 80 Republican votes. And that is looking increasingly likely, as right-wing opinion of Santos continues to sour, flipping more Republican votes by the day.

“He’s fucked,” one GOP leadership aide told Politico under the condition of anonymity.

Other Republicans took to social media to express their frustrations, believing that they had given Santos enough time following initial reports that found the freshman congressman lied about almost every detail of his life, including obtaining a college degree, working on Wall Street, and his alleged Jewish heritage.

“I gave Rep. George Santos the time needed for an ethics report following his indictments,” said Iowa Representative Randy Feenstra in a statement.

“Rep. George Santos has proven that his ethics do not align with what we expect from our leaders. In light of the Ethics Committee report, I will vote to expel him from Congress for his illegal and unethical behavior should he choose not to do the right thing and resign,” Feenstra added.

Santos has been indicted on 23 charges related to wire fraud, credit card fraud, money laundering, falsification of records, and identity theft.

Advertisers have fled X, formerly Twitter, in droves in the last 24 hours due to owner Elon Musk endorsing and promoting antisemitic beliefs on the platform.

An X user posted on Wednesday that Jewish communities have pushed “diabolical hatred against whites,” a neo-Nazi talking point. Musk replied, “You have said the actual truth.” About an hour later, he tried to claim he was only criticizing the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish nonprofit Musk has threatened to sue for monitoring hate speech on X.

The next day, a report published by Media Matters found that X has been placing ads for brands including Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity next to posts that promote Hitler and Nazi beliefs.

The floodgates opened soon after. IBM announced Thursday evening that it had paused advertising on X in light of the Media Matters report. The next morning, the European Commission said it had frozen ads on X.

“We have seen an alarming increase in disinformation and hate speech on several social media platforms in recent weeks, and X is certainly quite effective of that,” European Commission spokesperson Johannes Bahrke said at a Friday press conference. “We have therefore advised services to refrain from advertising at this stage on concerned social media platforms.”

Just hours later, Lionsgate Entertainment suspended all ads on X. Apple announced it was following suit less than an hour afterward.

Musk has owned X for little more than a year, and this is now the second time he has sent advertisers running. Hundreds of companies pulled ads from X when Musk first took over, promising to restore free speech to the platform.

Instead, hate speech has flourished during his reign. The social media research group National Contagion Research Institute found that in the 12 hours after Musk bought X, use of the n-word increased almost 500 percent.

And Musk is often a major source of that hate speech and disinformation. In addition to aggressively antisemitic posts, Musk also regularly lets Nazis back on X, shares transphobic content, and spreads conspiracy theories.

Public support for Israel’s military barrage of the Gaza Strip is crumbling. The vast majority of Americans believe that their country should support a cease-fire in the escalating conflict, which so far has killed more than 12,000 Palestinians—more than half of them women and children—and 1,200 Israelis.

Sixty-eight percent of respondents agreed that Israel should call for a cease-fire and try to negotiate, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted between November 13 and 14.

Meanwhile, just 32 percent of respondents said that the “U.S. should support Israel,” a 9 percent drop from October’s polling results.

But do U.S. politicians agree with the American people?

So far, only 55 representatives out of 435 members of the House of Representatives and four senators out of 100 Senate members have called for a cease-fire. They include:

House

1. Representative Alma Adams (D-NC)
2. Representative Becca Balint (D-VT)
3. Representative Don Beyer (D-VA)
4. Representative Sanford Bishop, Jr. (D-GA)
   
5. Representative Jamaal Bowman (D-NY)
6. Representative Cori Bush (D-MO)
7. Representative Tony Cárdenas (D-CA)
8. Representative André Carson (D-IN)
9. Representative Troy Carter (D-LA)
10. Representative Greg Casar (D-TX)
11. Representative Joaquin Castro (D-TX)
12. Representative Judy Chu (D-CA)
13. Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO)
14. Representative Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA)
15. Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI)
16. Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)
17. Representative Veronica Escobar (D-TX)
18. Representative Valerie Foushee (D-NC)
19. Representative Maxwell Frost (D-FL)
20. Representative John Garamendi (D-CA)
21. Representative Jesús García (D-IL)
22. Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA)
23. Representative Al Green (D-TX)
24. Representative Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ)
25. Representative Jared Huffman (D-CA)
26. Representative Sara Jacobs (D-CA)
27. Representative Jonathan Jackson (D-IL)
28. Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)
29. Representative Henry Johnson (D-GA)
30. Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA)
31. Representative Daniel Kildee (D-MI)
32. Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA)
33. Representative Summer Lee (D-PA)
34. Representative Betty McCollum (D-MN)
35. Representative James P. McGovern (D-MA)
36. Representative Kweisi Mfume (D-MD)
37. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN)
38. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
39. Representative Donald Payne, Jr. (D-NJ)
40. Representative Dean Phillips (D-MN)
41. Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI)
42. Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)
43. Representative Delia Ramirez (D-IL)
44. Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD)
45. Representative Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA)
46. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
47. Representative Terri Sewell (D-AL)
48. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)
49. Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS)
50. Representative Lauren Underwood (D-IL)
51. Representative Gabe Vasquez (D-NM)
52. Representative Nydia Velázquez (D-NY)
53. Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA)
54. Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ)
55. Representative Nikema Williams (D-GA)

Senate

1. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)
2. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
3. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
4. Senator Peter Welch (D-VT)

The joint statement signed by Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman, Bennie Thompson, Nikema Williams, Valerie Foushee, Sanford Bishop, Jr., Donald Payne, Jr., André Carson, Lloyd Doggett, and Terri Sewell on Friday means that 9.2 percent of Congress have now called for a ceasefire.

“We urge you to use your immense influence and the full power of your office to continue negotiations and extend the bilateral pause beyond tomorrow so that both sides can build towards a bilateral ceasefire and, ultimately, a two-state solution,” they wrote, one day before the truce was set to expire. “Too many innocent lives have been lost already. The bloodshed must end.”

More than 500 political appointees and members of President Joe Biden’s staff have signed a joint letter calling for an immediate cease-fire.

“The overwhelming majority of Americans support a cease-fire. Furthermore, Americans do not want the U.S. military to be drawn into another costly and senseless war in the Middle East,” read the letter.

This article was updated on December 4.

A group of pro-Palestine protesters entered the New York headquarters of Fox News’s parent company on Friday, accusing the network of covering up “genocide.”

The activist organization ANSWER Coalition organized the demonstration. The protesters gathered in the lobby of the News Corp building, waving Palestinian flags and holding a banner that read, “Fox News’ lies cover up genocide.”

The protesters clapped and chanted, “Fox News, Fox News, you can’t hide, your lies cover up genocide.”

ANSWER coalition wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that “hundreds” of people attended the protest. But a spokesperson for the New York Police Department told The Hill that there were only about 30 protesters. The NYPD took 16 people into custody, the spokesperson said.

More than two-thirds of Americans support a cease-fire in Gaza, where fighting has continued relentlessly since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. The death toll has now passed 12,000 civilians, the Gaza government said Friday, and more than two-thirds of those casualties are women and children.

Slowly, calls for a cease-fire are growing in the halls of Congress too. A total of 34 lawmakers have called for an end to fighting: 33 representatives, including the first Jewish lawmaker, Becca Balint, and one senator, Dick Durbin.

Congress has been overwhelmed by the outpour of public support for a cease-fire. Democrats reportedly are telling their staff to let calls from voters go to voicemail while the party forms an official opinion.

President Joe Biden has so far resisted calls for a cease-fire, though, telling reporters last week that there was “no possibility” of one. Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer participated in a March for Israel rally on Tuesday.

One of the speakers at the rally was far-right evangelical Pastor John Hagee, a known antisemite who once claimed Jews were responsible for the Holocaust. Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who last month suggested that civilians in Gaza are legitimate targets, also attended the rally.

On Wednesday, Democratic Representative Brad Sherman spread dangerous misinformation when he described a protest calling for a cease-fire “pro-terrorist.”

One of Donald Trump’s expert witnesses in the New York business fraud trial admitted Friday that he is not, in fact, an expert.

Steven Laposa first took the stand Thursday to discuss the valuation of Trump’s real estate holdings. The New York attorney general has accused Trump and his allies of fraudulently inflating the value of their real estate assets to get more favorable terms on bank loans.

Laposa said the attorney general’s approach to valuation was “flawed” because it relied on a market value analysis of Trump’s properties. He argued it should have been based on the investment value, which takes into account the owner’s investment requirements.

When Laposa returned to the stand Friday, a lawyer for the attorney general’s office asked him if he had any experience reviewing personal financial statements. Laposa said no.

The lawyer, Louis Solomon, then asked if Laposa is or has ever been a certified appraiser. Again, Laposa said no.

Solomon cited Laposa’s initial deposition from July, in which he said that when “disparate valuations exist, it is prudent and common practice to examine the underlying assumptions.” Laposa admitted he had not done so with Trump’s valuations.

Laposa also revealed he had never seen the financial statements for Trump’s property at 40 Wall Street, which might make it difficult to value the property accurately. (On the stand Thursday, Laposa said that 40 Wall Street in Manhattan was also undervalued.)

It’s unclear what Trump’s legal team sought to accomplish by bringing in Laposa as an expert witness. His disastrous testimony reflects how much of the trial has gone for Trump.

The current trial is just to set damages. Presiding Judge Arthur Engoron determined in September that Trump had committed fraud. Engoron ordered that all Trump’s New York business certificates be canceled, making it nearly impossible to do business in the state and effectively killing the Trump Organization.

During the trial, Trump and his family members have all testified, and they have all made major mistakes. Trump’s lawyers also shared faulty evidence, undermining their own case.

Donald Trump was back to attacking New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s law clerk just hours after an appellate court suspended the gag order in his New York bank fraud trial.

In a post made on Truth Social Thursday evening, Trump slammed the gag order as “ridiculous and unconstitutional,” taking special note to ridicule the judge’s “politically biased and out of control, Trump hating clerk,” Allison Greenfield. Trump went on to snub Greenfield as “a disgrace” who is “sinking” Engoron and his court “to new levels of low.”

Engoron initially issued the gag order after Trump made derogatory comments toward his courtroom staff, specifically Greenfield, whom he accused of bias over a baseless assertion that she was dating Senator Chuck Schumer. Trump’s digital diatribe against the legal aide then ushered a scourge of far-right sympathizers onto her social media accounts.

“Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate, and I will not tolerate them in any circumstances,” Engoron said at the time.

Since then, Trump has twice violated the gag order, accruing $15,000 in fines and the threat of jail time.

Trump’s attorneys applauded the lifted order on Thursday, suggesting that public haranguing of courtroom staff is just a part of the job.

“There is not a day that I don’t get a threat. It’s just part of the game,” said Trump attorney Alina Habba. “If I put something out on social media, and I get a threat for it, which has happened to me every single day, I don’t get to cry.”

Another gag order on the former president survives, however, in his federal election subversion trial, overseen by Judge Tanya Chutkan.

Newly released audio from an interview recorded just two months after January 6 captures Donald Trump’s real thoughts on the insurrection. In his own words, the former president claimed it was within his abilities to stop the riot.

When asked by ABC chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl if he would have returned to the Capitol Building while thousands of MAGA supporters raided the building, Trump said he “would have.”

“I was going to,” Trump said in the recording, first published by CNN. “And then Secret Service said ‘you can’t’, and then by the time … I was thinking about going back during the problem to stop the problem, doing it myself. Secret Service didn’t like that idea too much.”

“And I could’ve done that,” Trump continued. “And you know what? I would have been very well received. Don’t forget, the people that went to Washington that day, in my opinion, they went because they thought the election was rigged. That’s why they went.”

But that cozy narrative—in which Trump wanted to benevolently wield his power to stop the riot—flies in the face of testimonies provided by more than a thousand witnesses during House January 6 committee hearings, including that of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.

According to Hutchinson, an “irate” Trump wanted to join the protesters at the Capitol Building so badly that he lunged at the clavicle of one of his Secret Service agents, Bobby Engel, before attempting to take the wheel of the presidential limo, nicknamed The Beast.

Hutchinson also testified that she overheard Trump saying he did not care if his supporters wielded weapons as they descended on Congress since he didn’t believe he would be a target of the violence.

The morning of, Trump also allegedly expressed frustration that his Secret Service were using metal-detecting magnetometers to keep armed people out of the area where he was set to give a speech.

“I overheard the president say something to the effect of ‘I don’t fucking care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the fucking mags away. Let my people in, they can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in, take the f---ing mags away,” she said.

Trump denied those allegations.

The January 6 committee also heard testimony purporting that Trump expressed support when he heard rioters were chanting to “hang Mike Pence” over the vice president fulfilling his constitutional duty to certify the vote for Joe Biden’s presidency.

In an 814-page final report, the committee determined that Trump “lit that fire,” fueling the violent, life-threatening raid in the weeks immediately preceding the insurrection.

Trump has been charged with four felony counts related to his actions on January 6, 2021.

Ex–Donald Trump attorney Jenna Ellis lashed out at her former boss, after his allies attacked her for flipping on the former president in the Fulton County case.

Ellis struck a plea deal with Fulton County prosecutors in late October, agreeing to testify against Donald Trump in exchange for a lighter sentence. Noted Islamophobe Laura Loomer, whom Donald Trump Jr. recommended as his father’s next press secretary, took aim at Ellis Thursday on X (formerly Twitter). Loomer called Ellis a “waste of space” and a “fake Christian.”

“Disloyal Harlots go to hell, Jenna,” Loomer wrote.

Ellis came out swinging Thursday night. “Don Jr’s pick for press secretary is claiming I am a ‘disloyal harlot’ and ‘going to hell,’” she tweeted.

“No mention though of Jr’s divorce, his girlfriend’s divorce from Gavin Newsom, or The Best Christian Ever screwing a porn star while his third wife was pregnant.”

When a commenter noted that Ellis had “turned quick,” Ellis demanded, “What’s not true in my post? Go ahead, I’ll wait.”

Everything Ellis mentioned in her tweet is true, and it was true even before she agreed to the plea deal. The difference, though, is that Ellis was not personally implicated in Trump’s multiple lawsuits until now.

Leaked video of Ellis’s testimony shows her providing incredibly damaging information to the Fulton County investigators. She describes how senior Trump aide Dan Scavino told her during the 2020 White House Christmas party that “the boss” intended to simply stay in office. Ellis explained that everyone knew “the boss” meant Trump.

Ellis said she pointed out that Trump had lost the election and they had lost all of their attempts to challenge the result in court. Scavino replied, “Well, we don’t care, and we’re not going to leave.”

Trump was charged with felony racketeering in Georgia for trying to overturn the state’s 2020 election results. He pleaded not guilty to all 13 charges. A big part of his defense is that he truly believed he won the election and was acting based on legal advice. Ellis’s testimony could prove to be his undoing.