--- title: "The AI CEO Caught Cheating on a Jumbotron Has an Important Career Update" description: "The disgraced AI CEO, who was caught having an affair on a Coldplay Jumbotron, has offered his resignation." date: "2025-07-21" modified: "2025-07-21" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/ai-ceo-caught-cheating-jumbotron-resigned" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "ceos" - "linkedin" --- # The AI CEO Caught Cheating on a Jumbotron Has an Important Career Update ![The disgraced AI CEO, who was caught having an affair on a Coldplay Jumbotron, has offered his resignation.]() *\Image: YouTube / Futurism\* The CEO of an AI company made international headlines last week after a Jumbotron at a Coldplay concert [caught him having an affair]() with — no, we are not kidding — his company's head of human resources. Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot, technically the outfit's "chief people officer," couldn't have looked more guilty, awkwardly attempting to hide their faces and duck out of the frame as they realized they were on full view of the stadium. The optics of the aired affair turned out to be a little too much for Astronomer, a buzzword-heavy data ops company that boasts in inscrutable marketing materials that it "empowers data teams to bring mission-critical software, analytics, and AI to life." Case in point, the company [announced in a LinkedIn post]() that Byron has "tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted." "Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met," the statement reads. According to the company's website, Cabot remains at the company, though it's being reported that she's [currently on leave](). "The Board will begin a search for our next Chief Executive as Cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy continues to serve as interim CEO," the statement reads. "While awareness of our company may have changed overnight, our product and our work for our customers have not." But not without a golden parachute; [*Axios* reports]() that on his way out the door, Byron negotiated an exit package. In other words, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin turned out to be right on the money: this was a genuine scandal, not some enormous PR stunt. "Oh, look at these two," an endeared Martin told a crowd of tens of thousands of fans. "Oh, what... either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy." The news comes after Astronomer announced that Byron had been placed on leave as the board of directors launched an investigation. Experts and internet commentators alike have since pointed out that if Byron and Cabot had simply played along, without acting incredibly guilty on the Jumbotron, it's likely that nobody would be talking about them. "They probably would have got away with it if they hadn’t reacted," New York University clinical associate professor Alison Taylor [told the *Associated Press*](). Apart from causing an executive shakeup — and an extraordinary amount of second-hand embarrassment — the hilarious clip of Byron and Cabot getting caught red-handed served as a refreshing distraction from a devastating, non-stop tidal wave of terrible news. "I'm pretty sure the Astronomy CEO and his side piece have done something no politician could ever do," one X user [tweeted](). Unite America." **More on the affair:** *[CEO of AI Company Caught Having Affair on Jumbotron at Coldplay Concert]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()