Hi, ChatGPT, who is the CEO of OpenAI? The answer, like much of the current inner workings of the world’s top AI startup, has been changing from hour to hour.

You’re not hallucinating: The company has been in a state of utter chaos since the bombshell announcement that its board had fired CEO Sam Altman last Friday afternoon. The twist reportedly caught pretty much everyone but the board members behind the move by surprise, and concerned parties—Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI’s investors and employees—spent the rest of the weekend trying to wrangle some semblance of order out of the situation.

The big question that hasn’t been answered publicly is why any of this is happening. While it’s been reported across multiple outlets that the dispute centered on OpenAI drifting from its original mission as a nonprofit-turned-hybrid org, the board members haven’t said anything in detail beyond claiming that Altman “was not consistently candid in his communications” with them. Indeed, even OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever, reportedly the instigator of the whole conflict, tweeted Monday morning that he “deeply regrets” his role in it, confusing many.

The original personnel announcement, released just last Friday, might feel like weeks ago at this point, given the speed of news since. So here’s a timeline of everything that’s happened between Friday and the publication of this story on Tuesday.

Keep reading here.—PK

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When Amazon Web Services (AWS) heard that some of its platform users struggled to hire qualified cloud-computing talent, it followed a familiar refrain: The customer is always right.

Indeed, AWS customers sparked the idea for the new AWS Cloud Institute, program director Kevin Kelly told Tech Brew in an interview. He said that the 12-course training program—set to begin its first rotation in January—aims to help fill open cloud-computing jobs worldwide.

The ballooning industry—responsible for over 5 million jobs by one estimate—encompasses roles that facilitate the remote, over-the-internet delivery of support services that used to be physically located on site (think filing IT desk tickets through an app instead of leaving your desk to find your company’s tech person on the fifth floor, or pinging an AWS server instead of one housed in your office building).

Public cloud-computing services accounted for over $250 billion in annual spending in 2020, according to training firm KnowledgeHut, which it notes has been on the rise since the Covid-19 pandemic drove companies away from on-premise work. By another estimate, the global cloud-computing market reached a value of $484 billion last year, and it’s projected to grow at a CAGR of 14.1% until the end of the decade.

Despite relatively high median salaries—cloud engineers and architects can often expect to crack six figures—and a proliferation of training programs offered outside of a university context, companies still struggle to find well-suited candidates for entry-level cloud-computing positions.

Keep reading here.—KG

If cheaper internet bills are on your Christmas list this year, you’re not alone.

A bipartisan trio of senators just introduced the Lowering Broadband Costs for Consumers Act of 2023, which aims to generate more funds for connectivity subsidies by spreading out contributions to the Universal Service Fund over a broader swath of companies.

The Federal Communications Commission’s USF is an umbrella of programs designed to make communications more accessible and affordable, including offsetting the high costs of expanding rural broadband infrastructure and subsidizing phone and internet service for low-income families.

Telecom companies are typically required to contribute a percentage of their revenue to the fund. However, bill sponsor Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma said some broadband providers and applications that generate high-bandwidth traffic are woefully absent from the collections.

According to the bill’s text, applications including social media sites, gaming platforms, cloud computing services, and videoconferencing services—in short, the platforms that generate high-bandwidth traffic necessitating infrastructure upgrades—would all pay into the USF, helping more traditional telecoms and their customers foot the bill for internet improvements.

Keep reading here.—KG