The daily business briefing: November 21, 2023

Gas prices dropped to a national average of $3.31 per gallon.

(Image credit: Thomas A. Ferrara / Newsday RM via Getty Images)

published 21 November 2023

1. OpenAI workers revolt over Altman's ouster

Chaos erupted at artificial-intelligence pioneer OpenAI on Monday as nearly all of the company's employees threatened to quit after the firing of co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, who was promptly snapped up by OpenAI backer Microsoft to head its new AI unit. Microsoft, like OpenAI's employees, had called for OpenAI to bring back Altman as soon as the firm's board ousted him. More than 700 of the ChatGPT creator's 770 employees signed a letter saying they would leave to join Altman if he wasn't re-hired because they were "unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgment and care for our mission and employees." The Washington Post

Gas prices have fallen by about 25 cents per gallon in less than a month, according to AAA data. The national average dropped to $3.31 per gallon Monday at the start of a busy week of Thanksgiving travel, with 55.4 million people expected to travel between Wednesday and Sunday, including 44.9 million of them by car. A gallon of regular gas is now 36 cents cheaper than a year ago after the national average for a gallon of regular gas dropped for nine straight weeks. The decline, "largely seasonal due to weakening gasoline demand, could extend for another week or two, leading to potentially the lowest gas prices since 2021 by Christmas," said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. Axios

Workers at two Wells Fargo branches — one in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the other in Bethel, Alaska — notified the National Labor Relations Board on Monday they planned to hold votes on unionizing. A victory would "start the first union at a major bank in decades," according to The Wall Street Journal. The push would follow recent successful union activity in other industries. This includes unionization votes by Amazon warehouse workers in New York and at hundreds of Starbucks coffee shops to the United Auto Workers strikes that won concessions from Detroit's Big Three automakers. "We would be foolish to not strike while the iron is hot," said Jessie McCool, a Wells Fargo compliance officer and a leader of the effort. The Wall Street Journal

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U.S. stock futures were little changed early Tuesday after the Thanksgiving-shortened trading week started with solid gains. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq were down 0.1% at 7 a.m. ET. The Dow and the S&P 500 rose 0.6% and 0.7%, respectively, on Monday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed 1.2% higher after touching a 22-month high. Microsoft gained 2% after touching a 52-week high on news that recently ousted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman would join the software company to run its artificial intelligence team. Investors will be looking for hints on the Federal Reserve's plans for interest rates when the central bank releases minutes from its latest policy meeting later in the day. CNBC

Elon Musk's social media company X filed a lawsuit Monday against Media Matters for America, accusing the liberal media watchdog of defaming the company in a report on how ads appear next to antisemitic posts. X, formerly Twitter, said Media Matters "exploited" features allowing users to create feeds that would make the company look bad in a report intended to "drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp." Media Matters President Angelo Carusone said the non-profit "stands behind its reporting" and would win in court. "This is a frivolous lawsuit meant to bully X's critics into silence," Carusone said. The Hill, The Associated Press

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.