The CEO who briefly took over for Sam Altman leans into being called 'rando Twitch guy' by Mira Murati in a text

Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch, is taking his unexpected 'rando Twitch guy' label in stride. Following a brief stint as interim CEO of OpenAI after Sam Altman's departure in 2023, Shear's tenure lasted just 72 hours before Altman was reinstated. Recent court proceedings involving Altman and Elon Musk have revealed private text exchanges from that short period. When Mira Murati, an OpenAI executive, learned of Shear's temporary appointment, she messaged Altman, referring to Shear as the 'rando Twitch guy.' Altman promptly confirmed, leading to a viral reaction across social media platforms. The online community erupted with memes, with one user commenting that Shear had 'caught a stray' and another dubbing it an 'all-time generational aura loss.' In response, Shear briefly altered his profile banner on social media to showcase Murati's text, later changing it to a more technical reference about liquid-crystal phases. He humorously noted, 'It's an honor just to be nominated,' a post that caught the attention of Musk, who replied with emojis expressing laughter and fire. While Murati may see him as a 'rando,' Shear is far from a newcomer in Silicon Valley. His startup, Kiko, received backing from Y Combinator in 2005 and was sold to eBay. He then co-founded Justin.tv, which would evolve into the livestreaming phenomenon Twitch.tv, eventually leading to Twitch's rebranding and its sale to Amazon for a staggering $970 million. Throughout his career, Shear has remained connected to Y Combinator, occasionally serving as a partner. His latest project, Softmax, focuses on alignment technology in AI.