After being seen hugging one of his staff members on a Jumbotron during a Coldplay performance in Boston, the CEO of an AI company has become the focus of a media frenzy. Andy Byron, the CEO of Astronomer, and Kristin Cabot, the company’s chief people officer, are seen in the widely shared viral video hugging each other tightly before swiftly escaping the frame when they become aware that they are being filmed.
According to reports, both Byron and Cabot are married and have kids, which only made the incident more closely watched. Chris Martin, the frontman of Coldplay, described the situation as awkward, saying, “Oh, look at these two… either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.” The moment was humorous, but that didn’t stop the backlash, as the video went viral online very fast.
Reddit users were quick to voice their thoughts, with many speculating that the incident was karmic, pointing out that infidelity frequently comes back to haunt people. A second woman in the picture seemed to cover her face, as some perceptive viewers noted, perhaps sensing the awkward situation.
The scandal is likely to cause Astronomer’s staff to question the CEO of a company that takes pride in its state-of-the-art AI and machine learning technologies. The business, which offers data teams software and analytics tools, will now have to deal with a far more private issue at work.
Cabot and Byron, who started working for the company in November, have not yet made any public remarks regarding the incident. But the consequences are already visible, as comments about Byron’s actions are all over his wife’s Facebook page. The regrettable incident also highlighted how easily a careless moment can spread in the current digital era. The couple could have prevented their affair from going viral by just smiling for the camera, as many social media users pointed out.
Online users are making jokes about how expensive the concert was in comparison to the ultimate cost of a divorce as a result of the ordeal. It’s obvious that the Jumbotron moment will be hard for everyone involved to forget, regardless of how things turn out.
