Tom Warren

It’s the holiday season, so it’s time for the latest Windows-themed ugly sweater. This time Microsoft has selected the Bliss default wallpaper from Windows XP for some holiday treatment. It’s available today from the company’s Xbox Gear Shop, priced at $69.99. Microsoft is supporting The Nature Conservancy this year with its sixth Windows-themed ugly sweater. Previous sweaters have included Clippy, Minesweeper, and Windows 95.

Microsoft CTO and EVP of AI Kevin Scott says the software maker will match OpenAI’s compensation to employees that want to join Sam Atlman’s new AI research lab. It comes shortly after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella went on a media tour last night and didn’t seem to know if Sam Altman will actually join Microsoft or not. Competitors like Salesforce have been trying to tempt OpenAI employees to join rival AI projects.

Microsoft employees are waking up to the surprise news of former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joining them as a colleague. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says Altman is joining to lead a new advanced AI research team, but he’s not yet showing up in Microsoft’s corporate directory according to multiple sources. He’s still marked as an OpenAI guest. Once he’s fully onboarded Altman will have a CEO title inside Microsoft and could be set to hire hundreds of OpenAI employees who have threatened to resign.

📩 Do you know more about Microsoft’s plans for its new AI research team? You can reach me confidentially on the Signal messaging app: +442081230413, or through email (tom@theverge.com).