Hundreds of OpenAI staff are threatening to walk away from the company following the board's rejection of ousted CEO Sam Altman to return to his position.
In a letter to the company, 95% of the employees demand the resignation of the remaining board members or they join Altman's new AI venture in Microsoft.
Among those who signed the petition were OpenAI co-founder and board member Ilya Sutskever, former interim CEO Mia Murati, and COO Brad Lightcap.
Microsoft, on its part, "assured" the resigning employees to have a position at the new subsidiary should they "choose to join."
The letter details that the rebuke is "consistent with the mission" of OpenAI to "ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity."
Live streaming platform Twitch co-founder and former CEO Emmett Shear currently holds the position of CEO, replacing Murati who had the role for just three days.
Sam Altman in Microsoft
Following the events of last week that shook the digital industry, Microsoft welcomed Sam Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman to lead its newest AI venture.
Other former OpenAI talents who resigned earlier are reported to join the new research team.
Among those are research director Jakub Pachocki, research scientist Szymon Sidor, and head of preparedness Aleksander Madry.
Altman's AI research team comes after Microsoft announced its in-house AI chip to rival Nvidia's AI tensor processing unit.
The former OpenAI CEO was also reported to be fundraising billions on a new advanced AI cheap before leaving the company.
Despite the change in leadership, Microsoft said it will continue its investments in OpenAI.
Why was Sam Altman Fired from OpenAI
OpenAI's board of directors removed Altman as CEO last Friday for the reason that the former chief executive had not been candid with the board, citing a "breakdown in communications."
Sutskever, one of the board members responsible for Altman's removal, apologized on X (formerly Twitter) for his previous decisions.
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.
— Ilya Sutskever (@ilyasut) November 20, 2023
Brockman, who was demoted, followed Altman soon after as a sign of solidarity.
Despite the events of the past week, Altman said he is still open to returning as the CEO of the company.
