Over 730 OpenAI employees want board to resign or they quit

Mass resignation is likely at OpenAI as hundreds of employees threaten to leave if their board does not resign and heed their demands.

File photo: ChatGPT logo

An employee exodus at OpenAI?

It was reported on Monday that more than 730 employees of OpenAI have signed an open letter calling for the reinstatement of Sam Altman as CEO, who was fired by the board on Friday, as well as co-founder and former president Greg Brockman.

The process through which you terminated Sam Altman and removed Greg Brockman from the board has jeopardized all of this work and undermined our mission and company, the letter read. Your conduct has made it clear you did not have the competence to oversee OpenAI.

OpenAI's board removed Altman, saying "he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities."

Chief technology officer Mira Murati was appointed as interim CEO but was later replaced by Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch.

Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has announced that Altman and Brockman will be joining them to head a new advanced AI research unit.

In the letter from the OpenAI staff, they threatened to join Altman, saying "Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAI employees at this new subsidiary should we choose to join."

The OpenAI employees also want two new independent lead board members, Bret Taylor and Will Hurd, appointed. Taylor is a tech industry veteran with close ties to Altman, while Hurd is a politician who served on the OpenAI board.

By 5:10 PM ET on Monday, 738 out of OpenAI’s around 770 employees have signed the letter. One of them is Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI's chief scientist and a member of its board, who has been blamed for coordinating the boardroom coup against Altman.

Sutskever said on X (formerly Twitter):

I deeply regret my participation in the board's actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we've built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.

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Via: Wired