Hundreds of OpenAI Employees Threaten to Resign and Join Microsoft

Jakarta –

Hundreds of OpenAI employees threatened to resign and join Microsoft if Sam Altman and Greg Brockman were not drawn back to OpenAI.

The threat was made in a letter addressed to OpenAI’s board of directors. They also asked the entire board of directors to resign after re-employing Altman and Brockman.

This letter was first noticed by journalist Kara Swisher, who said that 505 OpenAI employees signed the letter. The number then increased to 650 people, from the 770 employees that OpenAI currently has.

These employees said that Microsoft had confirmed that it would hire them if they resigned from OpenAI, as quoted by detikINET from The Verge, Tuesday (21/11/2023).

In the letter, OpenAI employees accused the board of directors of jeopardizing their jobs and undermining their and the company’s mission. They also dismissed accusations that OpenAI was developing too quickly and becoming dangerous.

“Our work on AI safety and regulation is shaping global norms,” ​​the employees wrote in the letter.

[Gambas:Twitter]

As is known, chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who is also on OpenAI’s board of directors, was the figure who pushed for Altman’s dismissal. Then via his X account he regretted having caused chaos within OpenAI.

“I deeply regret my participation in the steps taken by the board. I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we built together and I will do everything to bring this company back together,” Sutskever wrote in his post.

For information, after Altman’s dismissal and Brockman’s resignation, Microsoft created a new team to research “advanced AI”, which will be filled by former OpenAI employees. Then Altman was offered to become CEO of this team.

This move is unusual for Microsoft, because they usually use the title CEO for people who lead large divisions, for example Microsoft Gaming or companies they have acquired such as LinkedIn and GitHub.

However, OpenAI employees believe Microsoft is treating this move like a major acquisition, and assured that employees who resign from OpenAI will be accommodated on the team.

Watch Video “Sam Altman Reveals His Love with OpenAI“
[Gambas:Video 20detik]

(asj/asj)