Jump to content

Emmett Shear

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Nirvanatoday (talk | contribs) at 11:11, 20 November 2023 (Aligned image and adjusted text). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Emmett Shear
Shear in 2018
Born1983 (age 40–41)
Alma materYale University (BS)
Known for

Emmett Shear (born 1983) is the interim CEO of the artificial intelligence company OpenAI, having been named by the board on November 19, 2023 following the ousting of former CEO Sam Altman two days earlier.[1] Previously, Shear was the chief executive officer of Twitch, a position he served in until March 2023 since it was originally founded as a live video platform Justin.tv. Shear serves as an American internet entrepreneur, investor.[2][a] and served as a part-time partner at venture capital firm Y Combinator.[3]

Early life and education

Emmett Shear grew up in Seattle,[4] where he attended the Evergreen School for Gifted Children. There, he met his eventual co-founder Justin Kan at age 8,[5] and the two were bonded by their accelerated math classes and playing Magic: The Gathering.[6]

Shear received a Bachelor of Science with a major in computer science in 2005 from Yale University, which he attended with Kan and his eventual co-founder Michael Siebel.[7]

Career

Y Combinator

Shear, along with Kan, applied to the first class of Y Combinator when they were seniors in 2005. As part of Y Combinator, the two built a calendar application called Kiko, which they eventually sold on eBay for $250,000 after Google Calendar was introduced.[8][9]

Justin.tv

In 2006, the two, along with Michael Seibel and Kyle Vogt, started Justin.tv, a 24/7 live video feed of Kan's life, broadcast via a webcam attached to his head.[10]

Kan's "lifecasting" lasted about eight months but the four partners decided to transition to providing a live video platform so anyone could publish a live video stream. Launched in 2007,[11][12] Justin.tv was one of the largest live video platforms in the world with more than 30 million unique users every month until it was shut down on August 5, 2014.

On August 29, 2011, Shear became CEO of the new company.[13]

Twitch

After Justin.tv launched in 2007, the site quickly began building subject-specific content categories like Social, Tech, Sports, Entertainment, News & Events, Gaming, and others. Gaming, in particular, grew very fast and became the most popular content on the site.[14]

In June 2011,[15] the company decided to spin off the gaming content under a separate brand and site. They named it TwitchTV, inspired by the term twitch gameplay. It launched officially in public beta on June 6, 2011.[16]

On August 25, 2014, Amazon officially acquired Twitch for a reported $970,000,000.[17]

Emmett Shear speaking at Manifest 2023
Emmett Shear speaking at Manifest 2023

In March 2023, Shear announced that he was resigning as CEO and Daniel J. Clancy will take over.[18]

Investor Activities

Shear became a part-time partner at Y Combinator in June 2011, where he offered advice to the new startups in each batch.[19][20]

OpenAI

On 19th November, 2023, Shear was named as the interim CEO of OpenAI,[21] following the removal of Sam Altman by the board two days earlier.

Shear has publicly stated that he is concerned about the impact AI can have on civilization, putting his “P(Doom)”, or probability of doom, at between 2 and 50 percent.[22][23][24]

Philanthropy

In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, via Twitch, Shear donated the initial US$1 million to start a SF New Deal, a non-profit organization which ordered meals from San Francisco eateries and delivered them to people in need. The organization was started by his Yale college classmate Leonore Estrada, who owned the Three Babes Bakeshop in San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood.[25][26]

Notes

  1. ^ Name appeared as "Emmett Sheer" in "The ESPN of Videogames", Forbes (paper), ppg. 36,40, 2 Nov 2013.

References

  1. ^ Hagey, Berber Jin, Deepa Seetharaman, Tom Dotan and Keach. "Sam Altman Not Returning as CEO of OpenAI; Emmett Shear to Be Interim CEO". WSJ. Retrieved November 20, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ "Forty Under 40: Emmett Shear, Twitch". March 9, 2017. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
  3. ^ "Y Combinator's latest partners are also alums". VentureBeat. June 13, 2011.
  4. ^ Goldman, Justin (April 14, 2022). "How Emmett Shear Turned Video Game Fandom into a Billion-Dollar Business". Hemispheres. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
  5. ^ Twitch Started as a Reality TV Show, retrieved November 20, 2023
  6. ^ Lynley, Matthew (August 8, 2014). "How A Site That Streams People Playing Video Games Became A Billion Dollar Business". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
  7. ^ Goldman, Justin (April 14, 2022). "How Emmett Shear Turned Video Game Fandom into a Billion-Dollar Business". Hemispheres. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
  8. ^ Lynley, Matthew (August 8, 2014). "How A Site That Streams People Playing Video Games Became A Billion Dollar Business". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
  9. ^ Twitch Started as a Reality TV Show, retrieved November 20, 2023
  10. ^ "IT'S JUSTIN, LIVE! ALL DAY, ALL NIGHT! / S.F. startup puts camera on founder's head for real-time feed, and a star is born". San Francisco Chronicle. March 30, 2007.
  11. ^ Liz Gannes. "Justin.tv Wins Funding, Opens Platform". gigaom.com. Archived from the original on June 17, 2012.
  12. ^ "Grab a webcam and give lifecasting a try". CNN.
  13. ^ "After A Hot Start, Justin.tv Spins Off Socialcam, Its 'Instagram for Video'". TechCrunch. AOL. August 29, 2011.
  14. ^ "Live-streaming site Justin.tv buffing up for e-sports channels". VentureBeat. March 10, 2011.
  15. ^ Ewalt, David M. (December 2, 2013). "The ESPN of Videogames". Forbes. p. 40.
  16. ^ Alex Wilhelm (June 6, 2011). "TwitchTV: Justin.tv's killer new esports project". The Next Web.
  17. ^ "Here's Why Amazon Just Paid Nearly $1 Billion For A Site Where You Watch People Play Video Games". Business Insider. August 25, 2014. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
  18. ^ "16 Years of Twitch".
  19. ^ "Good night, Posterous". posterous.com. Archived from the original on October 11, 2021. Retrieved November 3, 2011.
  20. ^ "Y Combinator's latest partners are also alums". VentureBeat. June 13, 2011.
  21. ^ Efrati, Amir (November 20, 2023). "Emmett Shear Becomes Interim OpenAI CEO as Altman Talks Break Down". The Information. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
  22. ^ "Tweet by @rowancheung of excerpt of podcast interview with Emmett Shear". X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved November 20, 2023.
  23. ^ Verma, Pranshu; Tiku, Nitasha; Vynck, Gerrit De (November 20, 2023). "OpenAI stands by its ouster of Sam Altman. Emmett Shear named interim CEO". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
  24. ^ Twitch Started as a Reality TV Show, retrieved November 20, 2023
  25. ^ Duffett, Becky (March 27, 2020). "A Tech Angel Just Gave an SF Pie Baker a Million Dollars". Eater SF. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
  26. ^ Katie Canales. "Twitch CEO Emmett Shear just gave $1 million to a San Francisco baker to launch a nonprofit that will help small businesses amid a citywide shutdown to contain the coronavirus". Business Insider. Retrieved March 31, 2020.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emmett_Shear&oldid=1186014351"