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Over 500 OpenAI employees are threatening to quit unless Sam Altman is reinstated as CEO.
The group—which includes some top executives—is also demanding that OpenAI’s board resign, citing Altman's abrupt Friday dismissal. “Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAl,” the employees wrote in the Monday letter, according to tech journalist Kara Swisher.
The letter arrives as talks to bring back Altman as CEO appear to have collapsed. Instead, OpenAI’s board decided to name the former head of Twitch, Emmett Shear, as interim CEO, replacing current CTO Mira Murati as the interim chief.
However, the company’s largest partner, Microsoft, swooped in and hired Altman and former OpenAI President Greg Brockman to lead a “new advanced AI research team.” But it doesn’t look like Microsoft stopped there.
The OpenAI employees—505 of 750, according to Swisher—say Microsoft offered them all jobs at Altman’s new AI research team. “Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAl employees at this new subsidiary should we choose to join,” the staffers wrote.
The employees who signed the letter include OpenAI CTO Murati and chief operating officer Brad Lightcap. But most surprisingly, the letter is also signed by Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI co-founder and board member who reportedly helped orchestrate Altman’s ouster. Sutskever is now backpedaling.
“I deeply regret my participation in the board's actions,” he tweeted Monday morning. “I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we've built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company."
OpenAI’s board was made up of six members, which included Altman and Brockman before they left the company. The remaining four members, Sutskever, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, robotics engineer Tasha McCauley, and AI governance researcher Helen Toner, seem to have banded together to oust Altman in secret. This resulted in Microsoft only learning of the decision to fire Altman one minute before the announcement was made.
So far, OpenAI’s board has only said that Altman was dismissed because "he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities." The lack of transparency now appears to be frustrating the remaining executives and employees at OpenAI.
“Despite many requests for specific facts for your allegations, you have never provided any written evidence. [OpenAI executives] also increasingly realized you [the board] were not capable of carrying out your duties, and were negotiating in bad faith,” the employees wrote in Monday’s letter.
The letter even suggests that OpenAI’s board is ready to go as far as to sabotage the company. “Leadership worked with you around the clock to find a mutually agreeable outcome. Yet within two days of your initial decision, you again replaced interim CEO Mira Murati against the best interests of the company. You also informed the leadership team that allowing the company to be destroyed ‘would be consistent with the mission,’” the employees wrote.
OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.