• OpenAI’s founder and CEO Sam Altman was fired by OpenAI’s board. 

• The firing even came as a surprise to many OpenAI insiders and investors. 

• Reports are that Sam Altman is now raising money to start a new AI company while at the same time, the OpenAI board is re-considering their decision

• US inflation fell to 3.2% in the 12 months to October 2023, down from 3.7% in the 12 months to September 2023. 

• More good inflation news in the UK, where inflation fell to 4.6% in the 12 months to October 2023, down from 6.7% in the 12 months to September 2023

Stratechery: The OpenAI Keynote

Some of the biggest events in the tech industry calendar are the developer conferences put on by the large tech companies. Think Steve Jobs introducing new versions of the iPhone or Mark Zuckerberg demonstrating new AR hardware. These conferences set the direction for the big tech companies, which in many ways sets the direction for the rest of the industry, and ultimately directs which technologies ends up in our hands as consumers.

The artificial intelligence company OpenAI joined the ranks of the tech giants with their very first developer conference earlier this month. This summary of the conference and the products they launched is even more interesting in the context of what has happened next - OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO, Sam Altman, was fired by the board. He is alleged to have mislead the board, over what remains unclear, although information is breaking pretty quickly so we may learn more between the time we write this and when you read it.

OpenAI’s technology has been nothing short of revolutionary. ChatGPT introduced the world to generative AI and large language models. Their generative image product, Dall-E, is less celebrated but just as revolutionary. And Sam Altman has helped the company become one of the most valuable privately-held technology companies at $86 billion.

In Sam Altman’s presentation at OpenAI’s developer conference he announced improvements to ChatGPT, including the ability for the AI to ‘see’ and ‘speak’ by enabling it to process images and introducing text-to-speech functionality.

There are so many questions swirling around OpenAI after the news of Sam Altman’s firing over the weekend. Perhaps the only thing not in question is their core product, ChatGPT, which reportedly has more than 180 million users and generates more than 1.5 billion website visits each month. Whoever takes over from Sam Altman will have big shoes to fill.

Reece Duca: The Manager Who Outperformed Buffett

This is a wild story of a personal investor building an incredible fortune. Reece Duca started with just $2,000 in his personal investing account. Five decades later, that account is worth billions. And Duca has done it without bringing on external funding. 

As this profile explains, it wasn’t an overnight success. In the first 3 and a half years, Duca turned $2,000 into $7,000. Duca then went to Stanford Business School and while he was there, turned his $7,000 into $75,000. After graduating he started investing his money full time. In the first 5 years after graduating, that $75,000 turned into $2 million. And in the five years after that, $2 million into $7 million. 

We include these steps to explain that while Duca was generating an incredible annual rate of return, all of these steps seem manageable over the span of 20 years. When we start to think about growing our own personal portfolios in a similar way, building wealth can feel a lot more achievable. 

From there, Duca went on to have plenty of success in business, including founding a company GlobalEnglish and getting involved and eventually becoming the largest shareholder of The Learning Company. At the same time, as his portfolio grew, he was able to hire great managers to invest portions of his portfolio. 

We’d never heard of Reece Duca before this profile. But his example serves as a reminder that building wealth is within everyone’s grasp, even if we’re starting with small amounts of money. With the right level of work, insight and luck, the stock market allows stories like Reece Duca's to happen. 

The best place for product reviews is … Reddit?

This is something we wholeheartedly agree with, and with the holiday season (aka shopping season) approaching it is a timely article to share. If you’re looking for an unbiased, unaltered review of a product - go to Reddit.

The problems with most review sites and the booming business of fake reviews have been well covered. At the same time, many review sites seemed to be more optimised for SEO and affiliate revenue than product reviews. Reddit, for the most part, seems to be immune from these problems. When corporate accounts or fake reviews do pop up, Reddit’s user base will call them out and Reddit’s unique up-voting and down-voting mechanism mean these fake reviews rarely reach the top. 

When you’re next searching for a product, try putting “Reddit” on the end. Don’t just google “Best 4K TV”. Try googling “Best 4K TV Reddit”. Thank us later.