OpenAI employees threaten to quit unless board resigns
More than 500 OpenAI workers, including a board member, have written a letter to the board, demanding the reinstatement of ousted CEO Sam Altman.
More than 500 employees of OpenAI have threatened to leave the company if the current board doesn’t resign and reinstate former Chief Executive Sam Altman and former President Greg Brockman.
The threat was made in a letter to the board of directors and among the signees was Ilya Sutskever, the company’s chief scientist and one of the members of the four-person board that voted to oust Altman. OpenAI currently has about 770 workers.
“Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAI,” the employees wrote. “We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgement and care for our mission and employees.”
Microsoft said late Sunday that it hired Altman and Brockman to helm a new advanced artificial-intelligence research team. The move came after Altman’s bid to return to the company he co-founded fell apart, with the board that fired him declining to agree to the proposed terms of his reinstatement.
The board also found someone else to take his spot, former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear.
The letter is the latest twist in what has been a bizarre few days for the artificial-intelligence startup following the firing of Altman on Friday.
The employees said they may leave the company and join Altman and Brockman at Microsoft if their demands aren’t met, adding that Microsoft had assured them that there would be jobs available for all of them. Microsoft has invested $13 billion in OpenAI.
Representatives from Microsoft weren’t immediately available to comment. Microsoft shares rose 1% in morning trading Monday.
Following the news that Altman’s bid to remain at the company had failed, OpenAI employees began posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “OpenAI is nothing without its people.”
On Monday morning, Sutskever posted on X trying to repair the damage.
“I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions,” he wrote. “I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we’ve built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.”
In addition to Sutskever, OpenAI’s board consists of Adam D’Angelo, a former Facebook executive and the founder of the question-and-answer website Quora; Tasha McCauley, an adjunct senior management scientist at Rand, and Helen Toner, a director at a Washington nonprofit.
During intense negotiations Sunday, Altman and his supporters pressed for a new board, floating names including Bret Taylor, the former co-CEO of Salesforce; Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb and a longtime confidant of Altman’s; and Laurene Powell Jobs, founder and president of Emerson Collective, people familiar with the matter said.
The employee letter also demanded the addition of two independent board members, such as Taylor and Will Hurd. Hurd, a former Texas congressman, left OpenAI’s board earlier this year.
In their letter, the employees said senior leadership at OpenAI attempted to listen to the board’s concern and cooperate with them. The board abruptly fired Altman Friday, citing a lack of candor in his communications with the board, but no further details were communicated.
“Despite many requests for specific facts for your allegations, you have never provided any written evidence,” the employees wrote. OpenAI’s leadership team “also increasingly realized you were not capable of carrying out your duties, and were negotiating in bad faith.”
On Sunday, a person familiar with the board stood by the board’s Friday statement citing Altman’s lack of candor, The Wall Street Journal reported then. This person said there was no single precipitating incident but rather a mounting loss of trust over communications with Altman that led it to remove him as CEO. The person declined to offer examples.
The new OpenAI chief, Shear, said in a post on X early Monday that he had accepted the job and would hire an independent investigator to generate a report on events leading to the upheaval at OpenAI.
“It’s clear that the process and communications around Sam’s removal has been handled very badly, which has seriously damaged our trust,” Shear said, adding he would push strongly for significant governance changes if necessary.
Altman was at OpenAI’s San Francisco office Sunday trying to negotiate his return. He had told friends that he would only consider returning if the board that fired him was completely gone. Ultimately, that insistence doomed his counter-rebellion, people familiar with the matter said.
Despite pressure from investors, including Microsoft and venture-capital firm Thrive Capital, the board members fended off their attempts to reinstate Altman, empowered by an unusual corporate structure that gave them more power than investors that poured billions into the AI company.
Altman was shocked by OpenAI’s decision, previously feeling confident he would be able to return to the company, according to a person familiar with his thinking.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, in his X post announcing the hire of Altman and Brockman, said that Microsoft was committed to its partnership with OpenAI and that it would move quickly to provide the two men with “the resources needed for their success.”
“The mission continues,” Altman wrote on X, reposting Nadella’s message.
The Wall St Journal
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