Mr. Altman was unexpectedly fired in a boardroom coup last Friday. Photo: Amir Cohen/Reuters
Almost all of OpenAI's employees are threatening to quit unless ousted founder Sam Altman is reinstated and the board resigns.
About 700 of the company's 770 employees signed a letter of no confidence in the board of the creator of ChatGPT, demanding the return of the former head of the company. executive.
The internal revolt erupted on Monday in response to OpenAI's botched firing of Mr. Altman, who has since been hired by Microsoft to lead its artificial intelligence (AI) efforts.
Mr Altman, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, was abruptly ousted in a coup three days ago. An attempt by key investors and senior employees to bring him back failed late Sunday.
Despite critical talks on Sunday night that suggested Mr Altman was close to returning, OpenAI's board ultimately hired the Twitch employee. -founder Emmett Shear as the new CEO of the enterprise.
Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear was hired by the company OpenAI's board of directors became the new executive director of the enterprise. Photo: Reuters TV
Microsoft, OpenAI's largest investor, supported the effort to reinstate Altman. Satya Nadella, the tech giant's chief executive, announced the hiring of Mr. Altman and former OpenAI President Greg Brockman on Monday morning, shortly after Mr. Shear was appointed.
However, the board's attempt OpenAI's restoration of its powers sparked even greater internal rebellion. A few hours later, the majority of employees demanded the resignation of the board of directors.
Their letter stated: “We cannot work for or with people who lack competence, judgment and concern for our mission and employees. We, the undersigned, may decide to withdraw from OpenAI and join the recently announced subsidiary of Microsoft, which is run by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.
“We will take this step soon unless all current board members resign resign.”
Employees also tweeted en masse: “OpenAI is nothing without its people.”
Ilya Sutskever, chief scientist and board member of OpenAI, played a key role in Mr. Altman's resignation but was one of those who signed the letter that led to the stunning reversal.
He said: “I am deeply I regret my involvement in the board's actions… I will do everything possible to reunite the company.”
In response to joining Microsoft, Mr. Altman, 38, said: “The mission continues.”
< p lang='art' dir='ltr'>❤️❤️❤️ https://t.co/NL3nqrjKUo
— Sam Altman (@sama) November 20, 2023
Mr. Altman has become the figurehead of a new wave of Silicon Valley companies promoting the power of artificial intelligence.
Microsoft has pledged to invest up to $13 billion (10, £4 billion) at OpenAI under Altman.
Mr Nadella was reportedly blindsided by the AI chief's sacking and was warned about the decision just minutes before it became public. However, Mr. Nadella has made it clear that Microsoft will continue to work with OpenAI despite the changes.
According to a statement issued on Friday, Mr. Altman was fired by other directors of OpenAI, which was created as a non-profit organization specializing in on the safety of the AI because it “wasn’t always candid” with the board of directors.
The coup reportedly came about because of tensions between the board and Mr. Altman over his increasingly commercial plans for the nonprofit. He was also reportedly trying to raise billions of dollars for other ventures, such as a new microchip company.
However, OpenAI employees complained in their letter that the board of directors did not provide any “specific facts” about Mr. on Altman. firing.
Mr. Shear, co-founder of Twitch, the game streaming company sold to Amazon for $1 billion, said he plans to hire an independent investigator to “dig into” the process that led to Mr. on Altman. dismissal.
He added: “The board did not fire Sam because of any specific disagreement about security, their reasoning was completely different from that.”
OpenAI is the developer of ChatGPT, Chat -a bot based on artificial intelligence, the popularity of which increased sharply at the end of last year. OpenAI was on the verge of raising new funds at a $90 billion valuation, but those efforts are now in doubt.
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