Nvidia Lost Its Founder. Now Someone Has to Count the Chips. -- AI Brief November 13

Good day %%first_name%%. Sorry this one is landing in your inbox late. I’ve been running around all day getting ready for tonight’s big event: Face to Flash, twelve of my NickyDigital photos of New York nightlife from the fall of 2006, opens tonight with a NickyDigital Reunion from 7 to 10pm at Here BK, 26 Bushwick Avenue in Brooklyn. There’s a photo booth, bloghouse DJs and drinks at 2006 prices. If you’re in NYC, please come join us.

Now, the news. Nvidia no longer has Jensen Huang, the man who built it, and the most useful part of the story may be the least glamorous one: somebody is counting chips. Also today: AI personas lifting comedians’ jokes to sell subscriptions, the people backing up their AI partners before the next model update, deepfake victims being told “it’s not real,” and a Duke team asking whether musicians will start writing for the AI detector.

Nvidia Lost Its Founder. Now Count the Chips. NVIDIA Newsroom

* What happened: Nvidia’s board announced Thursday that Jensen Huang has resigned as president, CEO and board member, effective immediately, after 33 years. CFO Colette Kress becomes interim CEO and keeps the CFO job, Harvey C. Jones becomes the company’s first-ever board chair, and the search for a permanent CEO will consider internal and external candidates. Earnings are still set for Tuesday, November 17.

* Why it matters: On Wednesday we gave you the trailer: an acknowledged affair with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore’s Megaspeed whom U.S. officials suspect of working for China. Then The New York Times reported a relationship with an Nvidia executive who reports to him, and the board moved. Nvidia’s statement addressed neither, PBS notes, and shares fell more than 4% Thursday. Axios put it plainly: “It’s impossible to overstate how critical Huang is to Nvidia, to the AI buildout, to the stock market and economy.”

* What everyone’s saying: The internet settled on “spy.” The officials haven’t. Multiple sources told CNN that the intelligence gathered so far doesn’t prove Alice Huang spied for Beijing, and that officials disagree about how strong the evidence is (via Newsweek). China calls the allegations “unsubstantiated.” Singapore found insufficient evidence she committed a crime, suspected she gave police “inaccurate information” about her role, and barred her from returning.

* My read between the lines: The affair explains a resignation. It doesn’t explain where the chips went. In its first statement, Megaspeed said it has hired an unnamed U.S. law firm “to lead a comprehensive census of its graphics processing units,” NBC News reports, and a source says the Justice Department is running a criminal probe into diversion claims. A census tells you what’s in the building today, not what left it in 2024. “We counted the chips” and “we resolved the investigation” are two different sentences. Watch which one people quote.

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An AI Persona Stole Her Joke CNN

* What happened: Los Angeles stand-up Julia Jasunas found a joke she’d posted to Instagram coming out of the mouth of an AI-generated persona, and CNN’s Jon Sarlin reports its creator then taunted her. AFP found the account, “Aylen Skye,” built more than 230,000 Instagram followers and a Meta verified checkmark before it was removed. It’s still on TikTok, and it links to Fanvue, an OnlyFans rival full of AI-model adult content.

* Why it matters: For new comedians, posting clips is how you build the audience that gets you booked. “You’re funnelling my intellectual property into some sexual thing for profit,” Jasunas told AFP. Carnegie Mellon’s Michael Smith asked the bigger question: “What happens if we cut out that early part of the career ladder?”

* What everyone’s saying: She isn’t alone. New York comic Olivia Carter has stopped posting new material, and George Brett Olson says a persona called “Tiffany Sloane” copied his joke, his stage and his outfit, “except she butchered the punchline.” Instagram head Adam Mosseri replied that banning AI isn’t “practical,” adding: “If an AI creator is ripping off content wholesale, it would be good for us to work out what we can do about that. I’m not sure what it would