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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: The ouster of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has shaken the tech industry, leading to concerns over the future of artificial intelligence. How strong is OpenAI going to be if all of the team bails? What led to the shakeup and what's next for Altman and OpenAI?
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, November 21st, and this is Morning Wire. Argentina shocks the world and elects a libertarian outsider as president. Today begins the reconstruction of Argentina. Who is Javier Millet and how did he manage the seismic win? And 30 million people are expected to travel this week, even more than last year. We have some tips that will save you money and maybe even a headache or two while traveling this holiday season.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: You can save about 20 to 40% off your airfare if you go on one of those low demand dates. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: A massive leadership shakeup is sending shockwaves through Silicon Valley and could cripple one of the world's leading AI research firms. Meanwhile, speculation about what's behind the shakeup has run rampant. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was abruptly fired on Friday and has announced he's been hired by Microsoft.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Joining us with the details is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips. So Cabot, a huge development for people who follow AI. Give us a little background here.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah. So for context, OpenAI is one of the world's leading artificial intelligence firms. They're the brains behind ChatGPT, for example, the viral chatbot that now has 180 million users and really took the tech world by storm this year.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: OpenAI was founded in 2015 by a group that included Sam Altman, as well as former chairman of the board, Greg Brockman. While the group was technically founded as a nonprofit, it was financed in large part by some of the most famous companies and venture capitalists in big tech, including Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Amazon, and Microsoft.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Microsoft is the single largest shareholder in the company. They invested $13 billion and control a 49% stake. Now, as the company exploded in popularity with the rollout of ChatGPT, their value skyrocketed. Their profit subsidiary, OpenAI Global, was worth more than $86 billion.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Wow. So it sounds like there was a pretty substantial return on investment under Altman's leadership. Why would they suddenly want to oust him?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, it is a stunning reversal for someone who just last month was meeting with world leaders and testifying before Congress as sort of the global face of AI. While the full details of his removal are still unknown, we do know the board voted 4-2 to dismiss him and that Brockman, the chair of the board, left the company in solidarity with his co-founder.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: To replace him, OpenAI hired Emmett Scheer, the former CEO of the video streaming service Twitch. In a statement following the ouster, OpenAI board of directors said that Altman quote was not consistently candid in his communications with them and that they did not have confidence in his ability to lead the firm.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Later they clarified that there was not any quote financial malfeasance on Altman's part but they did not specify exactly what he was being fired for. That's the big question here. And that statement didn't really do anything to quell rumors over his removal at all.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, there has been more than a little speculation over the root cause. Some observers suggested the board may have thought Altman was too cavalier about the potential dangers of AI. Others have speculated the company could be on the verge of more breakthroughs and that the board was hitting the brakes, while others have suggested a proposed pivot to hardware, specifically AI-oriented chips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: All might have caused the dispute. But again, we are still in the dark on what happened and unfortunately may never know.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, this move seems to have taken a lot of people by surprise. How has the rest of the company reacted to the board's decision?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: In a word, poorly. A large number of OpenAI staff have openly revolted against the board. On Monday, more than 500 of the company's 700 employees threatened to quit and join Altman's new project unless the entire board resigned.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And it's worth noting, Altman is reportedly very popular with shareholders, and there was considerable lobbying over the weekend to get him back in as CEO. For a moment, it did look like those efforts would succeed. But on Monday, the company confirmed that he would not be returning.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, traditionally, if a majority of a company's shareholders and, you know, 500 or 700 employees want something, they get it. But while people can invest in it, OpenAI is still technically a non-profit first. Its board is totally independent and the business portion of the company answers to them.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So that explains how they stood resolute there. But there does seem to be at least some buyer's remorse on the board's side. After the backlash, chief scientist and co-founder Ilya Satsgever issued a statement saying, I deeply regret my participation in the board's actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For their part, Microsoft seems dead set on keeping Altman and Brockman around. After OpenAI confirmed that it was not going to take them back, Microsoft announced it was launching a new AI research team with Altman and Brockman as leads.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So there's still going to be major players in this space, even if not at OpenAI. Well, it sounds like there's been a lot of upheaval. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Anytime.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Libertarian outsider candidate Javier Millet won the presidential election in Argentina on Monday, sending political shockwaves through South America and the world.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Although not a complete surprise, Millet's victory represents a sea change in Argentine politics, which had been mostly controlled by the left-leaning Peronista party for decades.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Here to discuss the shakeup in Buenos Aires is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus. So Dave, who is Javier Millet and how did he win this thing?
--:-- David Marcus: Morning. Millet was a fairly little-known congressman who's now set to be the president, by some accounts, the first libertarian head of state anywhere ever.
--:-- David Marcus: And as that implies, he really ran on a promise to decrease the economic footprint of the government and look much more to the private sector to create growth. He's a very big personality with a wild shock of dark hair who says things like, "You can give socialism an inch."
--:-- David Marcus: He waves around chainsaws at his rallies. John, he's not shy. And his aggressive stance in opposition to communism applies not just to the classic economics of socialism, but also to cultural Marxism, stuff like the trans issue or diversity, equity, and inclusion, which are resonating in Argentina as they are here in the U.S. and in much of the West.
--:-- David Marcus: Yeah. Who did Millet beat out to win this race? And how did the conditions get to the place where an outsider could actually pull this off?
--:-- David Marcus: So he was running against economics minister Sergio Massa. And Argentina is a country with 140 percent inflation and an awful lot of poverty. It's been an economic basket case for at least two decades now.
--:-- David Marcus: The ruling Peronista center-left party was offering more of the same with Massa. And Clearly, the people wanted a change, giving Millet 56 percent of the vote. And look, Millet, for his part, was offering something radically different from the status quo, which the Argentine people hope will produce different and better results.
--:-- David Marcus: Now that he's secured this victory, what are the economic challenges he faces in actually trying to lead his nation?
--:-- David Marcus: So the short-term problem that he's going to face is that if he is able to implement the reforms he wants, there's going to be some economic pain as people lose government jobs or benefits, and it will take some time for the private sector to fill that void.
--:-- David Marcus: So one important question will be how patient the Argentine people are willing to be. And another is whether he can end or at least significantly decrease corruption, which the country has not only been rife with, but almost synonymous with.
--:-- David Marcus: There's a lot of excitement in Argentina and across the world, honestly, in the wake of Millet's win, but there's also an awful lot of work to do.
--:-- David Marcus: Speaking of that, the international reaction, we saw some of that here with Donald Trump congratulating Millet and many Trump supporters drawing parallels between the two men. Are those fair comparisons?
--:-- David Marcus: You have to be careful grafting foreign elections on our elections. The governmental systems and political history are very different. But having said that, Millet does have some real similarities to Trump. Both are very over-the-top figures who say whatever they want.
--:-- David Marcus: Both very much run against the establishment, promising to break it up. And both are very focused on far leftism or wokeism. Millet appeared on Tucker Carlson's X program, and he appeals strongly to that part of the right.
--:-- David Marcus: I think that Trump and his band of influences are wise to tie the two men to each other's stars, just as Brexit was tied to Trump's ascendancy back in 2015 and 2016. But I think we should be careful about viewing this as too much of a harbinger of what's to come in our own election or as something that will have a big impact on it either way.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Yeah, regardless, an intriguing development down in Argentina. It is.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Holiday travel season is now upon us. So we did some digging to find this year's tips and trends that might help travelers plan their vacations to be as hassle-free as possible.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Daily Wire investigative reporter Maraid Elordi is here to give us the details on this year's travel trends. So, Maraid, let's start with the best days to fly this year. What's that looking like?
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Hi, Georgia. Well, looking at Thanksgiving, one of the busiest airport days likely already happened this past Friday. But other peak days will be Wednesday and, of course, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, which falls on November 26th.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: That Sunday after Thanksgiving tends to be particularly bad and is often the busiest travel day of the entire year. In fact, last year post-Sunday set a record as the busiest travel day ever with 2 million people passing through a TSA checkpoint.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Thanksgiving Day itself shouldn't be too busy, but if you can try to plan your return for Monday or Tuesday, flights will be cheaper and definitely less crowded.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Now what about Christmas travel? A lot of people haven't bought their tickets yet. Which travel days should they aim for?
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Well, as far as Christmas goes, the days just after Christmas are always crowded travel days. The busiest day this year will probably be Wednesday, December 27th, two days after Christmas.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: The Wednesday before Christmas, December 20th, is also likely to see peak travelers. And as always, the day before New Year's Eve will also probably be very crowded.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: So the best days to fly around Christmas and New Year's are the holidays themselves. But obviously not many people want to travel those days.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: If you haven't bought your Christmas travel ticket yet, many airlines offer their best deals of the year on Travel Tuesday, which falls after Thanksgiving weekend right after Cyber Monday.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Now, speaking of prices, is inflation making air travel much more expensive this year? Surprisingly, no. Holiday airfare is a little cheaper in 2023.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: According to Hopper, the average ticket is $400, about $52 less than last year. But those tickets are still nearly 30% higher than they were in 2019.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: But if you're worried about cost, traveling on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day itself tends to be much cheaper because fewer people travel on those days, as we mentioned earlier.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Christmas Day plane tickets are about 26% cheaper right now. Essentially, it's cheaper to fly out a little earlier and return a little later so you miss the more expensive tickets that everyone wants right around the holiday.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: For Thanksgiving, flying the Monday after Thanksgiving is on average about 40% cheaper than flying on the Sunday after, and as we mentioned earlier, less crowded.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: And if you're an early riser, that helps too. Morning flights tend to be cheaper and much less likely to be delayed. That's according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Now, how are the airlines faring these days? Have they recovered from those pandemic era struggles?
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Right. So nearly all U.S. airlines were decimated during the pandemic when air travel plummeted. Now they're facing pilot and crew shortages as more volume has picked up.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: We spoke to Eric Napoli, who is the vice president of legal strategy at AirHelp, which is an air travel passenger rights company. He says the pandemic recovery has led to different problems.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: What has happened is, you know, there was a year or so or two where we decreased our travel and we were so excited to get back in the air. And we get there and we say, oh my gosh, travel is horrible. Or I forgot how bad this was. We forgot what travel was like and about the delays and the crowds and all these things.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: And we're not used to crowds the way we used to be. So there's a sense of crowding. But what is true is that it's taken the travel industry some time to ramp up back to the staff numbers they had before.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: So airports have been understaffed. Airlines have been understaffed. About half of all Americans said they plan to travel more this year. That's according to a Forbes survey.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: So bottom line, expected long lines, potential delays and staff shortages. But remember, this is supposed to be fun.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Well, I am flying out Tuesday evening, so fingers crossed.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Mairead, thanks for reporting. Thanks, Georgia.
--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.
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--:-- Host: Georgia Howe: Hey, guys. Producer Brandon here.
