👀 The memos behind Altman's 2023 ousting

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. The November 2023 ousting of Sam Altman may feel like ancient history in the AI world, but the dramatic tech saga just got some juicy new details courtesy of former OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever.

With a 10-hour deposition as part of Elon Musk’s lawsuit unearthing 52-page memos on Altman and others, wild merger talks, and more, it’s clear Silicon Valley's wildest weekend still has secrets to uncover.

In today’s AI rundown:

OpenAI co-founder's deposition reveals memos, merger talks
Wharton AI study shows surging enterprise adoption
Create on-brand marketing campaigns with Pomelli
Former xAI researcher targets $1B for human-first AI lab
4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

🍿 OAI co-founder's deposition reveals memos, merger talks

Image source: Court deposition

The Rundown: OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever just disclosed in a court deposition details surrounding Sam Altman’s Nov. 2023 ousting, including a 52-page document of management issues, a ‘Brockman Memo’, and a discussed Anthropic merger.

The details:

The Altman removal attempt was considered for ‘at least a year,’ with Sutskever crafting the 52-page memo detailing patterns of dishonesty and manipulation.
Sutskever said ex-CTO Mira Murati provided “most” of the evidence, with the deposition mentioning a memo on OAI President Greg Brockman’s conduct.
The memo claimed Altman “pitted” Murati against Daniela Amodei, the sister of Anthropic leader Dario Amodei, who both worked at OAI prior to Anthropic.
The deposition also revealed that Anthropic expressed interest in a potential merger during the crisis, with Dario Amodei proposed to lead the entity.
The testimony emerged in Elon Musk's lawsuit challenging OpenAI's restructuring, with Sustkever participating in a 10-hour deposition.

Why it matters: Given OpenAI’s success and Altman’s rise, the November 2023 drama feels like a fever dream — but details continue to emerge that show how close the industry came to a radically different landscape. With the key players now at their own rival AI labs, the dynamics of years ago are likely to continue to intertwine.

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AI RESEARCH

📊 Wharton AI study shows surging enterprise adoption

Image source: Wharton

The Rundown: Wharton released its annual enterprise AI report, surveying roughly 800 senior decision-makers at U.S. firms and finding that AI usage is surging, with budgets growing and increased optimism about the tech across companies.

The details:

Top AI business tasks included data analysis/analytics, meeting summarization, presentation and report creation, marketing content, and brainstorming.
ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot rank as the top two most used tools, followed by Gemini, Meta AI, custom or organization-specific models, and Amazon Q.
Nearly 3/4 of orgs.. now measure AI ROI via metrics like productivity gains and incremental profit, with 88% planning budget increases in the next year.
C-suite ownership of AI strategy jumped 16 percentage points year-over-year, with 60% of enterprises also now appointing Chief AI Officers.

Why it matters: These are just a few nuggets from a massive report full of interesting insights — and despite the doom and gloom surrounding AI job loss and lack of returns, both the numbers (3/4 seeing ROI) and sentiment within companies seem to be more positive than headlines may suggest.

AI TRAINING

🔥 Create on-brand marketing campaigns with Pomelli

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Pomelli (by Google Labs and DeepMind) to automatically create your business identity and generate on-brand marketing campaigns with ready-to-use creatives.

Step-by-step:

Go to Pomelli, click "Let's Get Started", enter your website URL - Pomelli scans and extracts colors, fonts, taglines, tone, and product cues
Edit your "Business DNA" summary by adjusting colors, values, and copy to match your brand vision - all fields are customizable
Prompt the campaign generator: "Create a scary but kind Halloween campaign", review three variations like "Give them something good" or "Treat yourself, no tricks"
In the creative editor, change headlines, text, fonts, colors, resize for different placements, use "Fix layout" to auto-reflow elements, and add a call-to-action

Pro tip: Be sure to test the conversion rate of Pomelli-generated creatives vs. your previous creatives.

PRESENTED BY TELUS

🛡️ Is your AI security ready for 2026?

The Rundown: AI vulnerabilities are multiplying, and defenses are struggling to keep up. 2026 will demand bold, proactive strategies — are your systems ready? Join Uncharted: The AI Safety & Security Summit for exclusive insights, proven tactics, and actionable plans to safeguard your organization.

Attend the online summit on Nov. 13 and:

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HUMAN&

🧠 Former xAI researcher targets $1B for human-first AI lab

Image source: Zelikman.me

The Rundown: Former xAI researcher Eric Zelikman is reportedly set to raise $1B at a $5B valuation for Human&, a new startup using unique training methods to develop human-centered AI with a team made up of employees from other frontier AI labs.

The details:

The founding team includes Google's 7th employee, Georges Harik, and veterans from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and DeepMind.
Humans& aims to create ‘human-centered’ AI via a new training method that better understands users and strengthens capabilities, over replacing them.
Zelikman pioneered the research behind teaching language models to reason step-by-step before responding, work that later shaped OpenAI's o1 series.

Why it matters: AI is racing towards models that outthink humans on every task, but Zelikman sees breakthroughs coming from systems that make human teams more effective together, not from superintelligence alone. The large valuation also continues the trend of pre-product, pre-revenue AI startups raising big money.

QUICK HITS

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📣 Pomelli - Google’s tool for easily creating on-brand marketing materials

📰 Everything else in AI today

Google pulled its Gemma model after reports of hallucinations on factual questions, with the company emphasizing it was intended for developer and research purposes.

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman said AI models are “not conscious” and that research into it is not the “work that people should be doing”.

Cameo filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for its new Sora ‘Cameo’ feature, saying the naming will lead users to associate its brand with “hastily made AI slop and deepfakes.”

AI music platform Udio announced a 48-hour window for users to download their generations, after backlash following changes in the wake of a partnership with UMG.

OpenAI announced the ability to purchase additional generations in its Sora app, with Sora head Bill Peebles saying they will “soon pilot monetization” on the platform.

AI music persona Xania Monet became the first AI artist to appear on Billboard’s airplay radio charts, coming after signing a multimillion-dollar deal last month.

COMMUNITY

🤝 Community AI workflows

Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.

Today’s workflow comes from reader Pam B. in Brazil:

"I use AI like a co-pilot plugged into most of my day.. ChatGPT for ideation and writing, Claude for cross-checking, Gemini for imagery, Perplexity, and Consensus for more research. I also use AI in Notion and Miro, benchmarking in Semrush, and am always testing new tools daily."

How do you use AI? Tell us here.

☕️ OpenAI co-founder reveals new details on board drama