https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/16/23834645/openai-global-illumination-acquisition-minecraft-clone-chatgpt

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OpenAI bought the makers of a Minecraft clone

OpenAI bought the makers of a Minecraft clone

/

OpenAI has acquired a small company called Global Illumination and
says it will work on products like ChatGPT.

By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video
games, and virtual worlds. He's submitted several accepted emoji
proposals to the Unicode Consortium.

Aug 16, 2023, 5:38 PM UTC|

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A screenshot from Biomes.
Image: Global Illumination

OpenAI says it has acquired Global Illumination, a small company
based in New York that describes itself as a "digital product
company."

In its announcement, OpenAI didn't disclose the terms of the
acquisition but said that Global Illumination's "entire team" has
joined the company to work on its "core products," including ChatGPT.
Beyond that, OpenAI didn't specify what the Global Illumination team
would be doing at the company. OpenAI didn't immediately reply to a
request for comment.

"Global Illumination is a company that has been leveraging AI to
build creative tools, infrastructure, and digital experiences,"
OpenAI said in the announcement. "The team previously designed and
built products early on at Instagram and Facebook and have also made
significant contributions at YouTube, Google, Pixar, Riot Games, and
other notable companies."

Global Illumination's website is pretty sparse. It has a brief
description of the company, lists eight employees, and has a link to
a game called Biomes, which is described as an "open source sandbox
MMORPG built for the web." (Graphically, the game has a striking
resemblance to Minecraft.)

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