OpenAI Staff Demand Board Step Down – Or Else They’ll Take Their Talents to Microsoft!
The future of OpenAI, a prominent artificial intelligence startup, has become more uncertain as a majority of its employees have expressed their intention to quit and join former leader Sam Altman at Microsoft Corp., unless the current board steps down.
The letter, signed Monday by about 600 of the AI firm’s roughly 770 employees, says the signatories “cannot work for or with people who lack competence, judgment and care about our mission and our employees.”
After a tumultuous weekend that began with Altman’s abrupt resignation from OpenAI’s board on Friday, Microsoft, which owns nearly half of the startup, tapped Altman and OpenAI founder Greg Brockman to lead a new in-house AI research group. .
“Microsoft has assured us that this new subsidiary will have positions for all OpenAI employees if we decide to join,” the employees wrote in the letter.
The earthquake is shaping the world of artificial intelligence. OpenAI — creator of the hugely popular ChatGPT app that took generative AI into the mainstream as Altman — has been at the center of the rapidly evolving technology. At the heart of this is whether AI should be a commercial opportunity or a potentially dangerous technology that needs to be checked and scrutinized at every turn.
Altman’s departure from the company he co-founded leaves OpenAI in turmoil. Thriven Capital was expected to lead the employee stock offering, which would value OpenAI at $86 billion. As of this weekend, the company had yet to put up any money and told OpenAI that Altman’s departure would affect its operations.
According to a person familiar with the discussions, some investors were considering zeroing out their OpenAI holdings. The potential change, which would make it more difficult for the company to raise additional funds, appeared to be intended to pressure the board to step down and bring Altman back.
Also hanging in the balance was another tender scheduled for early 2024, which would have given early-stage investors a chance to get liquidity for their shares, the people said. Just last week, OpenAI’s private shares were offered, valuing OpenAI at more than $100 billion. Markets dried up Friday after the board fired Altman, leaving hundreds of millions of dollars in private transactions pending.
Ilja Sutskever, a board member who has been seen as central to the government’s operations, said on Twitter on Monday that he regretted his involvement in the perceived coup.
The employees’ letter is accepted by OpenAI’s CTO (and briefly interim CEO) Mira Murati. It follows several posts by OpenAI employees on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying “OpenAI is nothing without people,” appearing to express solidarity with Altman and Brockman.
Wired previously reported on the employee’s letter.
Altman’s dismissal came as a surprise to OpenAI employees, according to the letter, as well as to Microsoft, the startup’s largest owner and closest technology partner. A coalition of powerful investors, business executives and the world’s largest software company tried to reinstate Altman over the weekend to no avail.
Late Sunday, the company’s four-member board instead appointed Emmett Shear, co-founder and former CEO of game streaming site Twitch. Shear, who became OpenAI’s second interim CEO in three days, won over executives because he recognized the threats posed by artificial intelligence, the person familiar with the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions.
Shear is a respected technology and computer scientist who has long advocated a more cautious approach to artificial intelligence. He laid out his priorities for his first 30 days on the job at X, pledging to overhaul the management team and hire an independent investigator to look into the circumstances of Altman’s firing. Apparently, this was not enough to dissuade the workers from presenting the government’s ultimatum. Shear did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
