The Coding Savant Thrust Into the Battle to Save AI’s Soul

When Emmett Shear got the call on Sunday, he’d been taking a break from running things to be a stay-at-home dad. Now the executive who created the world’s pre-eminent livestreaming service finds himself in the center of the battle over the future of artificial intelligence as OpenAI’s new impresario.

Shear, who over 12 years built Twitch from a niche platform into an entertainment powerhouse owned by Amazon.com Inc., said it only took him a few hours to decide to jump into the fray after OpenAI’s board shocked the global tech industry by firing co-founder Sam Altman from its top ...