SCOOP: As I told him would happen, @donlemon, the owner of this platform Elon Musk sent a terse text to his reps: “Contract terminated” after an interview Lemon did with Musk last Friday that was not to the adult toddler’s liking, including questions about his ketamine use. The much touted multi-million-dollar deal was a pricey effort to attract high profile media creators to X. Not so much when perpetually aggrieved billionaires in desperate need for constant affirmation run the place. So much for free speech.

Soft disagree with this pearl clutching tone. And since I know every one of these tech leaders well, I have to say that @sama is no different than most of the talented ones, which is to say, aggressive, sometimes imperious and, yes, self-serving. Wot? washingtonpost.com/technology/202… This line was silly since every ceo does this: “[It was] evidenced by his unwillingness to entertain any board makeup that wasn’t heavily skewed in his favor.” You’re fucking kidding said no one ever.

Ok, I am back for a few hours to update you since this idiocy at @OpenAI is pretty epic. Thus, let me tell you what’s what: The negotiations with @sama were ongoing and there was a noon PT deadline today when @ilyasut and his side asked until 5 pm. That’s when things went wacky. After dithering with Altman and his side for a few more hours, they dropped this out of left field, introducing a ceo who is — and I am being generous here, less than impressive in comparison to the interim ceo @miramurati and obvi Altman. But she wanted Altman and @gdb back, which was the right move, so the lady had to go.

Scoop: There are about to be a lot more major departures of top folks at @OpenAI tonight and I assume Altman will make a statement tonight. But, as I understand it, it was a “misalignment” of the profit versus nonprofit adherents at the company. The developer day was an issue.

https://twitter.com/gdb/status/1725667410387378559

Sources tell me that the profit direction of the company under Altman and the speed of development, which could be seen as too risky, and the nonprofit side dedicated to more safety and caution were at odds. One person on the Sam side called it a “coup,” while another said it was the the right move.

1. She and her PR person knew all day and were also offered to go on before @yoyoel too. Their choice as they wanted the last word, I guess. I also sent a text to her and everyone involved early this morning. No one was sandbagged. Yoel was asked a week ago btw. Do you think I prepped a detailed interview in a hour, @danprimack?

https://twitter.com/danprimack/status/1707199063744037087

2. She is the CEO and should be able to perform under pressure regardless. She should have all the numbers and facts at her fingertips. She should be able to articulate a vision easily. If she’s paid the big bucks, she needs to bring the big guns. The very talented @JBoorstin pressed her fairly and gave her ample time to respond.

This is true. Several government officials — all fans of Musk — approached me in 2022 asking for insights on how to best handle him and were grappling with how to please him. I was absolutely gobsmacked that petting a billionaire was what they had to do in the midst of war.

https://twitter.com/olliecarroll/status/1700018055269531683

Whatever your take on the war, I was perplexed that the US government would tolerate this free-lance behavior from a contractor and someone who had some clearly questionable self interests across the globe. It was an eye opener for sure.

We had a lucrative monthly deal in place with former Twitter management and two major advertisers to try to monetize my weekly Spaces, which we had been experimenting with. Then new owner Elon spooked advertisers with his shitty tweets & empty threats and they fled. So hard pass.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1693756240260698550

A lot of folks who think this should be a news platform were trying to do this but Mr. Free-Speech-But-Only-For-Me has, to use a technical term, shit the media bed.

Rebranding HBO to Max was the dumbest rebrand in recent history.
Elon: Hold my beer and/or whatever is being partaken at 3 am wsj.com/articles/elon-… In all seriousness, was one of Elon’s earliest companies that was combined with PayPal. He has loved the letter as he says since the 1990s.X.com

Please read this to understand the kind of demented con man that certain fatheaded tech bros and inexplicably @BillAckman think is worthy of our time by their hand wavy offers to create a “debate.” Per Tennessee Williams, their cravenness is at the bottom of a bottomless well.

https://twitter.com/thebadstats/status/1669867793465081858

And try to understand exactly why they back him — they want to burn it all down and have zero interest in helping anyone real and attack those tech and business leaders who are actually contributing to the wider world. I’d feel sorry for them if it was not so damaging.

A 🧵: I like Linda a lot and think she has been a canny media exec and a strong ad gexecutive. Elon is lucky to have her. But this tweet feels all wrong, since if this obvious debacle — where the medium became the message in a spectacularly cloddish way — happened on NBC when she… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… I get why she had to type this (btw, word police: it is historic not historical, which basically means it is over — and thank god). Elon requires fealty, even if performative. But if Twitter (and Linda, who has a lot of much deserved market credibility I hope she can hold onto)… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

A thread: As I said before, this was an impossible stage. But there were a few key moments where @CNN could have taken back the con from Trump, even tho his cavalcade of lies made it very difficult and the audience was gamed in his favor. Here’s my quick thoughts as an… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1. In no particular order, you need to top Trump early and often, despite accusations of being unfair. For example, the obvious Nasty Woman retort would have been: “And a jury just yesterday unanimously called you a sexual predator. So here we are. Do you want to keep going here,… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Good lord, I’ve been LeBroned, Shatnered, Kinged without my consent. No means no, boys. Inquiring minds need to know: Does Elon love me for me or for my 1.49 million followers?

So tomorrow on @pivotpod, I posit a theory about why Musk has become so performative with his right-wing dog whistle tweets on Fauci, libs, wokeness, as well as his pushing out the Twitter Files as if he were Woodward & Bernstein: Maybe he’s building a new kind of media company. Stick with me here — I am sitting on an airplane to SF which gives me a chance to ruminate on the why-so-loud-and-screamy of late, when the real goal should be to quietly rebuild the product, cut costs and eventually take the whole mess public again for his legions of fanboys.

I don’t recall this ding-dong stepping up when many of us were talking about the concentration of power in tech, which is a business & innovation issue. Instead when it’s in the financial interests of the very rich, they cynically make it fake political to gin up Tuckie rage. They could have cared less about who was taxing who — a valid concern of devs — and now as they preside over making Twitter a mosh pit for the malevolent and worse that invites scrutiny from the app stores, they cry victim and pretend stone cold capitalists are libs to deflect.

What Dave curiously leaves out here is that he & other top execs at these companies were the ones who larded their staffs up with all kinds of insane perks, would brag about them as cool & complain via text/email when reporters made fun of their inane kombucha tiki bars #receipts

https://twitter.com/davidmarcus/status/1592970137732538369

In other words, these dudes — so non-reflective that they wouldn’t show up in a mirror — raised their staffs like overindulged children whom they continually stuffed with all manner of sugar & sleep pods and now they incredulously wonder how the kids became so spoiled and lazy.

There was a time when you cared about the truth @elonmusk. That is long gone. I’ll add: Playing to the cheap (and dirty) seats is no way to live. You may be my greatest disappointment in 25 years of covering tech. Well, you and having to interview Jeff Bezos on a Segway once.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1595496293467508736

Wait let me correct: Having to be the one to tell Sergey Brin that Google Glass rendered Victoria Secret supermodels wearing them sexless. Yes you and that.

All due respect to @bgurley who is really a smart man, but this from a tech friend is correct: “this comment is objectively wrong. if there’s a murder, is it better that the police make a decision after 12 hours to arrest somebody even if they aren’t sure? …

https://twitter.com/bgurley/status/1595057195649044480

“After all, making any decision is better than making no decision! Elon made a stupid decision; was told what would happen, did it anyway, backed it out after exactly what everybody told him happen did in fact happen. does he stop there? No.” …

Good lord. I worked for McLaughlin in my early 20s and eventually had to testify against him in a sexual harassment trial. He was an unrepentant sexist & truly the cruelest boss I ever had. The show was utterly cooked, scripted to be like pro wrestling. I know cuz I scripted it.

https://twitter.com/Jason/status/1594086113311789056

He later settled but I watched his creepy groping with my own eyes. His lawyers tried to turf me. Good luck. He heralded in dumb talk and reductive fake fighting that became mainstream. He was a menace: washingtonpost.com/archive/lifest…

I spent the last day talking to smart folks who know Elon to try to grok why it feels capricious and what the method is to the seeming madness. Here you are for those who care and for those who don’t, good for you for ignoring chaos monkeys nytimes.com/2022/11/18/tec… 1. Twitter will not collapse imminently. Probably. It’s a resilient system and things are backed up. But it’s less failsafe and more prone to attacks by hackers who have an easier target. Elon is a gambler and he is betting on odds that fewer staffers will handle. Risky obvi.

A few things: 1. Depending on how much critical staff has left & where — it’s possible tho not probable the service could shut down at any time & for a short or long time. Relax as it used to do this a lot with the dreaded fail whale logo (see old & new one). It usually restores. 2. That said, I downloaded my archive recently — and you should as it is a record of you. It is likely that there are big security issues & your info could get hacked. This is also not uncommon, but a pain. If you have a credit card loaded in, be on alert. washingtonpost.com/technology/202…

Ok Tweeps: 1. Twitter is not going to end tonight, tho Elon is doing his level best to make it so. 2. There will be alternatives tho it will be hard to get a new network going, even if the software is great & it is well thought out. 3. Get on the list at Post.news It is a startup from the Waze dude @noam and I think he is a thoughtful person wanting to create a fun and substantial space for news discovery, convos and differing tho respectful points of views.