OpenAI Employees Threaten to Leave En Masse for Microsoft
Following its board of directors ousting CEO Sam Altman, hundreds of OpenAI Employees are threatening to leave for Microsoft if he’s not reinstated.
More than 500 of OpenAI’s 700 employees are threatening to leave for Microsoft if the ChatGPT developer doesn’t reinstate the recently departed co-founders. The move comes after the OpenAI board of directors fired CEO Sam Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman resigned. OpenAI announced both Altman’s firing and Brockman’s resignation on Nov. 17.
Altman and Brockman to Lead New I Research Team at Microsoft
The board’s decision had swift repercussions. While OpenAI’s board initially claimed it “no longer has confidence in [Altman’s] ability to continue leading OpenAI,” the directors seemed to have second thoughts hours later.
Multiple sources reported the board was in discussions with Altman about his return. Instead, Microsoft snapped up the former CEO. In an early-morning announcement on Nov. 20, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the Redmond-based software giant had hired both Altman and Brockman. The two will lead a new advanced AI research team at Microsoft.
Microsoft has already made significant investments into generative AI, including its integration into the operating system by way of Copilot in Windows 11.
OpenAI Employees Loyal to Altman Threaten to Leave for Microsoft
It didn’t take long after that announcement for hundreds of OpenAI staffers to make their intentions plain. In a letter to OpenAI’s board reported on by Wired, more than 500 current OpenAI employees said they would leave for Microsoft if certain conditions weren’t met.
Those include the board reinstating both Altman and Brockman, then resigning. In the letter, the body of employees said, “Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAI employees at this new subsidiary should we choose to join.”
Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAl. We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgement and care for our mission and employees. We, the undersigned, may choose to resign from OpenAl and join the newly announced Microsoft subsidiary run by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.
The employees went on to say OpenAI’s board of directors had jeopardized their work and “undermined our mission and company.”
Journalist Kara Swisher also reported on the letter, providing an image of one page of the document. Swisher notes that 505 of OpenAI’s 700 employees had already signed the letter, and more were joining the protest.
Interestingly, one of the first signatures on the letter was that of OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. Sutskever, one of the initial founders of OpenAI, reportedly led the push to remove Altman from his position. The scientist had a change of heart after a weekend of chaos at OpenAI, however. He took to X (formerly Twitter) to say he regretted his part in the move and that he “never intended to harm OpenAI.”
OpenAI Names Former Twitch Co-Founder as New Interim CEO
Meanwhile, OpenAI’s board of directors has already gone through one interim CEO and has named another. Former Twitch CEO and co-founder Emmett Shear was named as interim CEO for the company.
Before Shear’s hiring, chief technology officer Mira Murati was tapped as OpenAI’s interim CEO.
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