At the speed of AI, the story at OpenAI moves at lightning speed.
Hundreds of OpenAI employees signed a letter demanding the OpenAI board resign or face an employee exodus to Sam Altman’s new venture at Microsoft ‘imminently‘.
The board then attempted to negotiate Altman’s return, but those talks were unsuccessful.
At the touch of a button – resignation letter sent to the OpenAI board of directors
To the Board of Directors at OpenAI
OpenAI is the world’s leading AI company. We, the employees of OpenAI, have developed the best models and pushed the field to new frontiers. Our work on AI safety and governance shapes global norms. The products we built are used by millions of people around the world. Until now, the company we work for and cherish has never been in a stronger position.
The process through which you terminated Sam Altman and removed Greg Brockman from the board has jeopardized all of this work and undermined our mission and company. Your conduct has made it clear you did not have the competence to oversee OpenAI.
When we all unexpectedly learned of your decision, the leadership team of OpenAI acted swiftly to stabilize the company. They carefully listened to your concerns and tried to cooperate with you on all grounds. Despite many requests for specific facts for your allegations, you have never provided any written evidence. They also increasingly realized you were not capable of carrying out your duties, and were negotiating in bad faith.
The leadership team suggested that the most stabilizing path forward – the one that would best serve our mission, company, stakeholders, employees and the public – would be for you to resign and put in place a qualified board that could lead the company forward in stability. 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.”
Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAI. We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgement and care for our mission and employees. We, the undersigned, may choose to resign from OpenAI and join the newly announced Microsoft subsidiary run by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman. Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAI employees at this new subsidiary should we choose to join. We will take this step imminently, unless all current board members resign, and the board appoints two new lead independent directors, such as Bret Taylor and Will Hurd, and reinstates Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.”
In just 5 days
- Sam Altman sacked from OpenAI.
- Altman appears to move to Microsoft.
- OpenAI staff revolt.
- No confidence in OpenAI board.
- Space for staff to move to Microsoft and create new AI company under Altman’s leadership.
- OpenAI mass employee resignation letter emerges.
- Microsoft CEO Nadella says OpenAI governance needs to change no matter where Altman ends up.
- Altman back at OpenAI after board changes.
Now, Altman is back after getting the sack.
So, is all OK at OpenAI? I asked CHATGPT the question, here is the answer…
Searching for: OpenAI news
Generating answers for you…
It seems that there is some turmoil at OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. According to the latest news, the former CEO Sam Altman, who was ousted and hired by Microsoft last week, has made a stunning return to OpenAI as the CEO again1. The company also announced a new board of directors, including Bret Taylor, the former chair of Twitter1. This comes after a series of protests and resignations from OpenAI employees, who were unhappy with the direction and culture of the company2. OpenAI also unveiled new models and products at its DevDay event, such as GPT-4 Turbo, Assistants API, GPT-4 Turbo with Vision, and DALL·E 3 API3. These are some of the developments that have been happening at OpenAI recently. I hope this answers your question. 😊
There you have it, sacked and now back!