ICMI — Follow the money

Lee Schneider
2 min readOct 4, 2024

In case you missed it, I published an essay about where the money is going in AI, and what it’s funding. A quick clip of it is below.

Listen to the essay here or read it in my newsletter.

OpenAI is restructuring from a non-profit to a for-profit company. Its Chief Technology Officer, Mia Murati, announced that she’s leaving. Murati played a pivotal role in getting OpenAI CEO Sam Altman booted from the company last year, and she briefly became its CEO in his absence. Then, with Microsoft’s financial backing, Altman regained control over the company.

Whatever power struggles occurred behind the scenes, they have benefitted Altman. After the restructuring, OpenAI is discussing giving him a 7% equity stake. At OpenAI’s current valuation, Altman’s 7% would be worth around $10.5 billion.

When he is not counting his money, Altman has been meeting with Jony Ive, the former Apple designer, to develop an AI hardware product. Tech companies want there to be consumer-level AI hardware to buy, but so far have failed.

The latest episode of the Future Lab is a conversation about climate fiction with Tory Stephens of Grist. He discusses a fiction contest called Climate 2200 and the reasons for writing fiction about the future that inspires.

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Lee Schneider

Writer-producer. Founder of Red Cup Agency. Publisher of 500 Words. Co-founder of FutureX Studio. Father of 3 children. Married to a goddess.