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5 things that outlasted Emmett Shear's stint as OpenAI CEO

5 things that outlasted Emmett Shear's stint as OpenAI CEO

Jyoti Mann

Emmett Shear cofounded streaming platform Twitch in 2011.Horacio Villalobos/Getty Images

Emmett Shear was temporarily CEO of OpenAI in between Sam Altman's departure and return earlier this week.
It was an interim position, but is still one of the shortest tenures as a company chief.

Emmett Shear's stint as interim CEO of OpenAI might have set some sort of record.

By his count, Shear lasted just 55 hours and 32 minutes – or not even three days. "New record???," he seemingly joked on X.

The Twitch cofounder took up the role on Sunday night. By Wednesday he was replaced by the original CEO, Sam Altman, following a series of dramatic twists and turns.

In case you haven't been following events, Altman was ousted by OpenAI's board on November 17. But by Wednesday, he was back in charge along with a new "initial board" made up of Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo.

Here are five things in the tech world that outlived his time as CEO of OpenAI:

1. A Twitch user once livestreamed for almost two weeks straight

SOPA/Getty Images

In 2021 Twitch streamer Ludwig broadcast to some 30,000 viewers for nearly two whole weeks, per The New York Times.

He did it to generate more cash and vowed to stream for 20 seconds for each new $5 monthly subscription to his Twitch channel, according to The Verge.

2. A line to buy Apple's first iPhone

SOPA/Getty Images

A New Jersey maintenance worker was head of the queue to buy the first iPhone at an Apple store in New York City in 2007. Greg Packer waited for 110 hours to get his hands on one, The Atlantic reported.

That's not the longest time someone has stuck it out in a line for an Apple product. According to the outlet, Rob Shoesmith camped out for a total of about 240 hours to buy the iPhone 4S in 2011. We wonder if he thinks that was time well spent.

3. Amazon’s Black Friday week

Alex McBride/Getty Images

Online retail giant Amazon is holding a 10-day sale called Black Friday Week until Monday, offering discount prices on a range of products. And when that's over there's also Cyber Monday sale.

4. An AI hackathon event

Man coding. Getty Images

VC firm Craft Ventures held a three-day long hackathon back in May. The coding challenge, called Hack-AI-thon, took place in San Francisco.

David Sacks, a prominent investor and founder of the firm, was presiding over the competition as a finalist judge.

5. The time it took for an X community note to flag fake news

Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto/Getty Images

It took three days for a Community Note on X to appear under some fake news about the Israel-Hamas war, Business Insider previously reported.

Typically it takes seven hours for a a Community Note to flag disinformation about the conflict on X/Twitter, according to a Bloomberg analysis.

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