Employees of Tech firm OpenAI have reportedly demanded the board members to resign following issues with Sam Altman’s sack, 505 out of 700 employees have signed a letter to that effect
OpenAI employees are reportedly dissatisfied with the board of directors’ dismissal of founder Sam Altman. Employees allegedly demanded the board members’ resignations in a letter, as stated in a social media post by tech podcaster Kara Swisher. The advertisement reported that 505 out of 700 employees had signed the letter.
OpenAI has created ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) application. Utilizing the statistics website Tooltester, the program has over one hundred million active users.
The letter accused the board of undermining the mission of OpenAI, and Swisher published a copy of it. It stated, “We, the OpenAI staff, have developed the most advanced models and expanded the domain to unprecedented heights.”
However, “Your procedure for dismissing Sam Altman and Greg Brokman from the board has compromised the entirety of this endeavor and weakened our organization and mission.”
“The most stabilizing path forward” would be “for [the board] to resign and install a qualified board that could lead the company forward in stability,” according to the letter.
According to the letter, employees have endeavored to ascertain the reason for Altman’s termination but have encountered difficulty obtaining a definitive response from the board, which “has never provided any written evidence” to corroborate its accusations.
On November 17, the OpenAI board terminated Sam Altman’s employment because he “did not consistently maintain candid communications with the board.”
The same day, Greg Brockman was unsuccessful in his bid to retain his chair position. Confident investors angrily demanded his reinstatement in response to his dismissal.
On November 20, Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, announced the employment of Altman and Brockman to lead a newly formed artificial intelligence team.