A turbulent weekend at OpenAI that began with CEO Sam Altman's ouster culminated Tuesday night with his return to the company, after hundreds of employees threatened to resign and follow Altman to Microsoft.

The saga, which captivated the internet as it played out, drew a flurry of memes detailing Altman's return—some of which were posted even before his return was announced.

The best Sam Altman memes

"The last week in OpenAI history," wrote Mike Bird on Wednesday morning, alongside an image that Joseph Stalin infamously had edited. But in Bird's series of photos, the final image shows Stalin removed instead.

"This has gotta be the Games of Thrones in the tech industry..." posted another X user with the GigaChad meme

Another X user used a clip from The Office to demonstrate what Altman's return would look like.

But not everyone's memes came in response to the news of Altman's return. Some memes all but predicted it.

"Sam Altman practicing how he’s gonna walk back into the OpenAI offices on Monday morning," wrote one user with a clip of the Talking Heads' David Byrne rehearsing dance moves.

"Exclusive: Footage of Sam Altman returning to OpenAI as CEO," posted someone else on Saturday with a nearly 2-minute clip from the show Entourage, showing a character returning to his office with a paintball gun after being rehired.

Along with Altman's return, OpenAI announced a new initial board that includes former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and current board member and Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo.

"We are collaborating to figure out the details," the company said of Altman's return. "Thank you so much for your patience through this."

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Audio captured from a self-described "pro-Israel exclusive" X spaces shows two activists discussing shooting Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a progressive lawmaker who has been outspoken in criticizing Israel.

The discussion came ahead of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) annual fundraising banquet in Arizona last week.

The audio was released by CAIR, who said in a press release that a handful of X users in the Space were discussing whether it would be legal to yell a sexually explicit insult at Tlaib during the banquet before pivoting to talk about the Arizona state gun laws.

As one user mused about bringing a gun to CAIR's event, another user on the Space objected, saying: "Who would even want to bring a gun to an event like that? That's dangerous and not smart."

"I would never do such a thing, and plus there's security there and you're not allowed to bring weapons to something like an event like that, unless you're like a police officer or security," the user added.

A separate user then interjected, saying: "What I'm hearing is that if you want to shoot her at the event, you need to do it from far away."

The first user replied that he needed to "shut the fuck up" and told the host of the Space to "drop his ass."

The Space ended shortly thereafter.

In a statement, CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell called the discussion "bone-chilling" and "the latest proof that Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism are absolutely out of control in the United States." 

“The only thing more disturbing than the matter-of-fact discussion about targeting Rep. Tlaib is the fact that none of the hundreds of pro-Israel activists who heard this conversation live bothered to report it to law enforcement or warn Rep. Tlaib," Mitchell added.

Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, has served in Congress since 2019 and has frequently come under criticism for her remarks about Israel.

Earlier this month, Tlaib was censured by the House after lawmakers voted 234-188 in favor of rebuking her for “promoting false narratives” surrounding Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and for “calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.”

Critics in the House specifically took issue with her use of the slogan "from the river to the sea," which calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea—or in other words, the complete eradication of Israel.

In response, Tlaib said her words had been distorted and that her criticism was always directed toward the Israeli government.

"It is important to separate people and governments ... The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is antisemitic sets a very dangerous precedent, and it's being used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our nation," Tlaib said after the censure resolution passed.

The X Spaces discussion comes as Islamophobic and antisemitic incidents are on the rise, but it's far from the first time Tlaib has been targeted.

Last July, a Florida man was sentenced to three of probation for emailing death threats to Tlaib and three other congresswomen. Tlaib previously recounted receiving her first death threat on the first day of orientation, before she'd even been sworn in, and of another threat that touted the Christchurch mosque shootings.

"Receiving constant death threats—including against my family—will not silence me, but this kind of hate and threat of violence should not be the inherent cost of any woman participating in politics," Tlaib said in March upon re-introducing legislation to mitigate violence against women in politics.

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A whirlwind of news over the weekend after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was fired led to days of speculation about the future of ChatGPT, the company's flagship interactive chatbot that’s trying to mimic human intelligence.

Then yesterday evening, ChatGPT went down for users all around the world, leading some people to worry that the program was sunk or that Altman’s outing caused a breakdown.

“ChatGPT going down (possibly forever) just as college students approach their finals is *chef's kiss* to every degree possible,” joked @pankisseskafka on X.

“trying to write a 3000 word essay and chatgpt is down 💔💔💔 lord pls,” wrote another person.

The unexplained outage came after nearly all of the company’s employees signed an open letter to the board threatening to quit if Altman wasn’t reinstated as CEO.

A clear explanation for Altman’s firing hasn’t been provided by the board members yet, though unverified rumors flew around on social media that it had something to do with a conflict between “safetyist” board members who want to slow the development of artificial intelligence over concerns about its dangers and less cautious players like Altman

Early Wednesday morning, OpenAI announced that Altman would return as CEO with a new board including former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

In the meantime, people online grappled with what to do without the tool, with plenty of people wondering how they were going to complete their school assignments.

“I HAVE A 10+ PAGE ESSAY DUE TOMORROW AND CHATGPT IS DOWN PLEASE BE FR IM GONNA RAGE,” posted one person.

Others posted about what they were going to do if their boss asked them to rewrite something.

“just saw someone say they're struggling to program at work because chatgpt is down,” wrote another person. “the future is here, truly[.]

And with the fate of OpenAI still uncertain at the time, others wondered who was going to fix the problem if there was nobody at the company.

The outage affected both paid and subscription accounts. No chat histories were visible and any attempt to interact with the program was met with an error message.

According to OpenAI’s Status webpage, an elevated level of ChatGPT API errors were detected by the company around 2:09 PM PST. The outage was resolved by 5:46 PM. Though no explanation was given for the downtime, the webpage published a statement saying they planned to publish a public postmortem

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A man who previously worked as an adviser to former President Barack Obama apologized after videos showed him harassing a Muslim food vendor.

Stuart Seldowitz, who served in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs, was filmed calling the vendor a terrorist after approaching his food truck in New York City.

The 64-year-old was heard questioning the vendor over whether he had raped his own daughter while discussing the prophet Mohammed.

“Did you rape your daughter like Mohammed did?" Seldowitz asked. "Did you rape your daughter like Mohammed?”

In further remarks, Seldowitz suggested that the vendor and his family would be deported to Egypt and tortured by the country's security services.

"The Mukhabarat in Egypt will get your parents," Seldowitz continued. "Does your father like his fingernails? They will take them out one-by-one."

Incredibly, in a separate incident filmed by the vendor, Seldowitz even states that “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, it wasn’t enough."

The videos went viral on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and led users to suggest that Seldowitz was the man in question.

In response to questions from the Daily Beast, Seldowitz confirmed that he was in fact the man from the video.

"The bottom line is, yes it’s me," Seldowitz said.

The ex-diplomat claimed that the footage didn't show the entire conversation and that the issue began when the vendor expressed support for Hamas.

"There should be some comment back to someone who is endorsing terrorism and the killing of innocent civilians," Seldowitz argued.

Speaking with the New York Times on Tuesday, Seldowitz also denied having any prejudice towards Muslims.

"I’ve worked with Muslims," he said. "I have many people who are Muslims and Arabs and so on, who know me very well and who know that I’m not prejudiced against them."

In response to the controversy, Gotham Government Relations, a lobbying group where Seldowitz recently chaired, severed all ties with the former government official.

It remains unclear whether any legal action will be taken against Seldowitz. A New York police spokesperson, according to VICE, said that the department is aware of the footage and is "monitoring the situation."

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After crypto firm Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao, who’s known as C.Z. in the crypto world, agreed to pay a $50 million personal fine as part of a money laundering settlement, he took to X to reassure clients that the money in the exchange was safe and wouldn’t disappear suddenly like in the case of the once mighty FTX last year.

In a post on X, where he has nearly 9 million followers, C.Z. explained that he was stepping down from the company and would be replaced as CEO by Richard Teng, the former head of Regional Markets.

“As a shareholder and former CEO with historical knowledge of our company, I will remain available to the team to consult as needed, consistent with the framework set out in our U.S. agency resolutions,” C.Z. added. C.Z. is banned from any involvement with Binance’s business until three years after a court-appointed monitor is installed at Binance, reported the New York Times.

“ I am proud to point out that in our resolutions with the U.S. agencies they: do not allege that Binance misappropriated any user funds, and do not allege that Binance engaged in any market manipulation,” C.Z. claimed in his statement.

“Funds are SAFU!” C.Z. finished, referencing a crypto meme that basically means the your money won't be disappearing.

According to the plea deal, Binance will have to pay a $4.3 billion fine and penalty to the federal government.

Binance is accused of violating money laundering provisions by not properly identifying who was using its service. The government alleged that C.Z. knew its anti-sanctions measures were being circumvented but that he did nothing about it.

News that the fund wouldn’t be affected received a positive reception on crypto X.

“funds are safu but cz was not safu,” wrote one poster.

Others saw the plea as a way to protect crypto users and keep their funds safe.

“WHEN YOU SEE CZ JUST SACRIFICED HIMSELF FOR US AND OUR BAGS[,]” wrote another.

C.Z. has long been a high-flyer in the crypto industry. In 2022, Forbes estimated that he was the richest man in the industry, with an estimated net worth of around $65 billion. In October, that fell by billions of dollars to around $17 billion, according to Bloomberg. If that figure is accurate, it would mean the $50 million fine represents around just 0.29% of his wealth.

However, the Treasury Department called the action "unprecedented," and said that the settlement would also ensure that Binance would no longer be able to operate in the United States.

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Lawyers for Andrew and Tristan Tate’s alleged victims in the Romanian sex trafficking case against the brothers asked a Florida court to hold the brothers in contempt for violations of a pseudonymity order granted to the women in a civil case brought against them, citing repeated violations of the order by their lawyers.

Lawyers for the victims cited multiple occasions when Tate’s lawyers shared personal details about the victims during proceedings leading up to the court granting the order, noting that “there is a risk of physical harm and that the safety concerns apply equally to all Defendants.”

The case in question was filed by the Tate brothers against their alleged victims in July, alleging defamation, false imprisonment, interference with a business relationship, civil conspiracy, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and seeks $5 million in damages.

Lawyers for the defendants have argued that the Tates filed the suit to harass their alleged victims, citing publicly posted videos where Andrew Tate discussed “how to destroy haters.”

“I will sue you for any and every reason forever,” the lawyers quoted Tate as saying in an interview in 2022, “and you’re gonna have to hire lawyers and turn up for ever. I will do that. I’m that guy. I’m petty. I’m petty and I’ve got a lot of money and a lot of time.”

Included among filings in the lawsuit are text message logs and victim statements from the Romanian criminal case that put the brothers in prison in December last year. The Tates filed those documents to advance the false idea that the Romanian criminal case was based entirely on allegations from the women they’re suing. In one victim statement, a woman described “freezing” after being strangled by Tristan Tate before they had sex. The Tate brothers maintain that these statements are false and all relationships they had were consensual.

Lawyers for the victims say that despite the court order, Tate’s lawyers have kept up an unredacted complaint as well as a press release on their legal firm’s website. Those documents contain the names of the alleged victims’ and their family and associates who the Tates are suing. 

They also cited a livestream Tate’s lawyer Joseph McBride appeared on the Fresh & Fit podcast where he shared personal details about the defendants, painting them as a scheming pair of women who concocted a fabricated story about sex trafficking to frame the brothers.

A link to the unredacted lawsuit is still included in the description of that video.

Lawyers for the women sent an email to Tate’s lawyers last asking them to comply with the court order by refiling documents on the docket with redactions, as well as removing the documents they’re hosting elsewhere, or they would file a complaint asking for sanctions.

“We are all very tired of your cringe messages,” replied McBride in an email last Wednesday. Since then he hasn't taken any steps to comply with the order

Tate’s legal team didn’t respond to a question about why they haven’t replied with the court order.

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X users are posting screenshots of their searches for white nationalist and antisemitic terms and hashtags—attempting to debunk Elon Musk's big new lawsuit.

On Monday, Musk's X filed a lawsuit against the progressive watchdog group Media Matters after a report showed that X displayed advertisements from major companies such as Apple, Xfinity, IBM, and Oracle next to pro-Nazi content.

The lawsuit does not deny that the ads were displayed next to that content, but alleges Media Matters "manufactured" images and portrayed them "as if they were what typical X users experience on the platform."

The lawsuit accuses Media Matters of employing inauthentic activity "until it finally received pages containing the result it wanted: controversial content next to X’s largest advertisers' paid posts."

"In fact, IBM’s, Comcast’s, and Oracle’s paid posts appeared alongside the fringe content cited by Media Matters for only one viewer (out of more than 500 million) on all of X: Media Matters," it added. "Not a single authentic user of the X platform saw IBM’s, Comcast’s, or Oracle’s ads next to that content, which Media Matters achieved only through its manipulation of X’s algorithms as described above."

But as X continues to defend its safety protocols for advertisers, users on X tried to see if they would find advertisements when they searched for problematic terms like #HeilHitler.

One user, Avi Bueno, called out Twitter CEO Linda Yacarrino, who defended the lawsuit by posting the same claim that "Not a single authentic user on X saw IBM’s, Comcast’s, or Oracle’s ads next to the content in Media Matters’ article. Only 2 users saw Apple’s ad next to the content."

"Linda cannot be genuinely making this claim," they wrote.

"It took me about 30 seconds to find X placing advertisements for @TheAthletic, @ShopTemu, @ActionNetworkHQ, and @Visit_NJ alongside a search for 'killjews,'" he said. "This place is broken and advertisers should be worried."

He added in subsequent posts that the results were not a fluke and he'd found advertisements when searching for other terms including "heilhitler," "r*peiscool," and "g*dhatesgays."

And he wasn't the only one posting about finding ads next to offensive content.

"Like others, I searched #HeilHitler for an experiment and these were the ads that popped up," Evan Hurst wrote alongside a screenshot of ads for the conservative Media Research Center, an apparel company, and a vintage Banknotes seller. "I didn't have to 'excessively scroll' anything, it took under a minute to find all three."

"how could there not be an ad blacklist for some of this stuff???" wrote a separate X user of a screenshot of an ad for a Christian fundraising campaign that appeared under a search for "#Jewskilledjesus."

"Holy shit. If you search HeilHitler, you get a ton of ads. I literally just got the German Government's 'come live in Germany' ad on the search," wrote independent journalist Erin Reed. "The German Govt is literally accidentally advertising to Hitler searchers to 'come live in Germany.' Media Matters was not lying."

Users also claimed Musk and X were aware of their efforts to point out the inaccuracy of the suit.

"It would appear in response to multiple people confirming this, Twitter has nuked all search ads," Reed added Monday night.

Multiple companies suspended advertising on X in the wake of Media Matters' report. IBM told the Financial Times it "suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation" and Apple reportedly paused its advertising on the platform as well.

Other companies not named in the report have additionally halted advertising, according to Media Matters.

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A photograph of President Joe Biden celebrating his 81st birthday is being hailed by some as the new "This Is Fine" meme.

In a post to Threads on Monday, the president's official account showcased Biden sitting across from a birthday cake covered in lit candles.

The significant number of candles produced a comically-large flame that was quickly seized upon by social media.

"President Biden is celebrating his 81st birthday," conservative podcaster Kyle Becker wrote. "That cake is America right now."

Brendan Karet, a researcher for the left-leaning watchdog group Media Matters, argued that the photo had some of the worst political optics of the last 10 years.

"filing this under 'worst optics of the decade' next to the trump taco bowl tweet," Karet wrote.

The image was also used to highlight Biden's age as well as the growing consensus among Americans that our politicians are becoming too old.

"Joe Biden is so old, his birthday cake is a fire hazard," an X user said.

But many pointed out the photo's resemblance to the "This is Fine" meme, which famously shows a dog attempting to convince himself that everything is fine despite being in a room filled with flames.

The meme is often used, as described by Know Your Meme, as a reaction image that conveys "a sense of self-denial or acceptance in the face of a hopeless situation."

The Biden administration, seemingly aware of the attention garnered by the photo, joined in on the joke by stating on his Instagram account that it had actually been his 146th birthday. The post has since received more than 1 million likes.

"Thanks for the birthday well-wishes today, everyone," Biden's account said. "Turns out on your 146th birthday, you run out of space for candles!"

Biden is currently the oldest individual ever to serve as president. A poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal in August found that 73 percent of voters believed that Biden was too old to serve a second term. Biden's top contender, former President Donald Trump, would be 78 years if elected in 2024.

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The parent company of Truth Social, the social media platform founded by former President Donald Trump, sued a slew of news organizations on Monday that reported the company had lost $73 million in 2023.

The lawsuit alleges "an unprecedented and seemingly coordinated media campaign" aimed at damaging Trump Media & Technology Group's reputation and financial standing.

The lawsuit follows a number of reports on Truth Social's losses in 2023—though it is unclear where that figure came from.

"This number was an utter fabrication," the lawsuit reads. "Each defendant, in apparent coordination, reported the exact same false number within approximately 24 hours of one another, each citing to a public Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') filing, in which the mystery $73 million loss appears nowhere."

The actual figure of losses, from Truth Social's launch in early 2022 to mid-2023, is $31.6 million. Many outlets, such as Axios, have already updated their stories.

"As a result of these widespread lies, TMTG has suffered actual damages," the lawsuit, filed in Sarasota County, Florida, states. "Committed and potential investors have reacted negatively to the false news of TMTG supposedly losing $73 million, and TMTG’s ability to raise additional capital has been impaired."

The media organizations named in the suit include Reuters, MSNBC, CNBC, the Guardian, Axios, the Hill, and more. Trump Media & Technology Group is seeking a total $1,500,000,000 in damages and a ban on "the publication or republication of the defamatory statements."

The lawsuit comes as Truth Social and Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) are aiming to go public via Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), a special purpose acquisition company that plans to merge with the group

In a statement to its platform, Truth Social said on Monday night: "To the Fake News outlets that think themselves above accountability: we’ll see you in court."

Trump has previously falsely boasted that the fledging social media platform—billed as a free speech alternative to the likes of Twitter—has outperformed every other platform.

Truth Social has around 861,000 monthly active users on iOS and Android as of October, amounting to under 1% of those on Elon Musk's X, according to an analysis by Fox News.

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YouTube admitted on Monday that it was purposely delaying loading times on its videos for a specific group of users.

The controversy arose after those using the Firefox browser began accusing YouTube in recent days of making videos load five seconds slower for anyone not using Google's Chrome browser.

The purported effort was seen as evidence that Google, which owns both Chrome and YouTube, was punishing users for not using its products.

After receiving widespread attention online, Google released a statement confirming that specific users "may experience suboptimal viewing" but denied it was aimed towards those noting using Chrome.

Instead, Google told 404 Media that it was forcing the five-second delay on those using ad blockers, regardless of their browser.

"To support a diverse ecosystem of creators globally and allow billions to access their favorite content on YouTube, we’ve launched an effort to urge viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad free experience," a company spokesperson said. "Users who have ad blockers installed may experience suboptimal viewing, regardless of the browser they are using."

But many have been skeptical of Google's claims. Some users tested the theory with user agent switchers, tools that trick websites into believing you are using a different browser.

One user on X said they were hit with the delay despite their browser presenting as Apple's Safari without an ad blocker enabled. Others on websites such as Reddit likewise said they were met with a slower experience when using the Brave browser.

Yet results are inconsistent and appear to point to implementation issues on Google's end, not on specific targeting of non-Chrome users.

Nevertheless, the issue is being met with widespread backlash online. Google's decision comes just days after it was revealed that an upcoming version of Chrome would weaken the capabilities of ad blockers.

Google has said that the changes will help enhance browser security. Critics, however, point to ad-related security issues such as malvertising, an attack that injects malicious code into online ads.

The current fiasco is not the first time Google has been accused of targeting users in such a manner. An engineer for Mozilla, the company behind Firefox, likewise claimed in 2018 that Google was slowing down the load times for non-Chrome users on YouTube.

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