OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and more than 500 other employees have threatened to leave the troubled company after the board dramatically fired CEO Sam Altman.
In an open letter to the company’s board, which voted to remove Altman on Friday, the group said it was obvious “that you are unable to oversee OpenAI.”
Sutskever is a board member and led the decision to fire Altman before tweeting his “regret” on Monday and adding his name to the letter.
Employees who signed the letter said that if the board does not resign, they “may choose to resign en masse” and join “the newly announced Microsoft subsidiary led by Sam Altman.”
Altman was hired by Microsoft on Monday to head an AI research division. Microsoft is the largest investor in OpenAI and was caught off guard by the board’s decision to fire Altman.
Greg Brockman, another co-founder of OpenAI, also stepped down as president of the company on Friday.
OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and more than 500 other employees have threatened to leave the troubled company after the board dramatically fired CEO Sam Altman
Ilya Sutskever, co-founder of OpenAI, is on the company’s board and supported the decision to fire Sam Altman. Sutksever has now tweeted his “regret” over the decision and, along with more than 500 other employees, signed an open letter accusing the board of incompetence
Altman responded to Sutskever’s message with a series of heart emojis – a confusing development considering Sutskever reportedly made the decision to fire Altman
Sam Altman with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who has hired the former OpenAI boss to lead a new AI research team at Microsoft
OpenAI’s newly appointed CEO Emmett Shear has also promised an investigation into the board’s decision.
The letter from approximately 550 of OpenAI’s 700 employees to the board continued: “The process by which you terminated Sam Altman and removed Greg Brockman from the board has jeopardized all of this work and undermined our mission and our company. “
“Your behavior has made it clear that you do not have the authority to oversee OpenAI.”
Sutskever, who reportedly led the panel’s decision, added in a tweet: “I deeply regret my involvement in the panel’s decisions.” I never intended to harm OpenAI. “I love everything we have built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.”
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced Monday that the company has tapped Altman and Brockman to lead a new AI team. The development is seen as a coup for Microsoft, which has invested billions in OpenAI and wants to use the company’s technology for its own computing businesses.
OpenAI’s board said Altman “has not been consistently open in his communications.” The decision to fire him shocked the tech industry and sparked outrage among OpenAI investors and employees.
New CEO Shear, co-founder of streaming platform Twitch, said: “I took this job because I believe OpenAI is one of the most important companies out there right now.”
“Before accepting the job, I reviewed the reasons for the change. The board *didn’t* remove Sam from office because of a specific disagreement about safety, their reasoning was completely different. “I’m not crazy enough to take this job without the board’s support for commercializing our great models.”
Shear said he would “engage an independent investigator to look at the entire process up to this point and produce a full report.”
After his appointment by Microsoft, Altman wrote on X: “The mission continues.” Brockman added: “We are going to build something new and it will be incredible.”
Microsoft’s stock price rose 2 percent in premarket trading on Altman’s new hire. The gains continued in early trading on Monday.
Sam Altman will not return as CEO of ChapGPT maker OpenAI, a statement to the company’s employees says – and the recently resigned head of Twitch will take his place on an interim basis
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made the bombshell announcement on X this morning
OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, who will join the Microsoft team along with Sam Altman
Nadella added: “We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and to continue supporting our customers and partners.”
Timeline of Altman’s fall
Friday: Sam Altman was fired from OpenAI, prompting the tech tycoon to
Jakob Pachocki and his co-founder Greg Brockman were apparently surprised by the dismissal and also left the company on Friday.
Saturday: Executives tried to bring him back, and a leaked memo to staff suggested the company was “optimistic” about his possible return.
Sunday: Reports began circulating that he was willing to return if there was a change in the board and management.
Altman posted a snapshot of himself wearing an OpenAI guest pass while visiting his old employer, writing, “First and last time I’ll wear one of these.”
Monday: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that Altman and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman will join the company to lead a new AI innovation team.
Former Twitch leader Emmett Shear has taken over as interim head of OpenAI.
More than 500 OpenAI employees signed a letter saying the board was “unable to oversee OpenAI.”
Suggesting that Altman should be given the freedom to create a major new brand as part of Microsoft, Nadella also said: “We have learned a lot over the years about how to give space to founders and innovators, independent identities and cultures within from Microsoft.” including GitHub, Mojang Studios and LinkedIn, and I’m looking forward to it [Altman] do the same thing.’
On Sunday, Altman posted a photo of himself using an OpenAI guest pass during a visit to his old employer, writing, “First and last time I’ll wear one of these.”
Later that same day, The Information, citing an internal statement from Sutskever, reported that Altman’s departure was final. It said Shear, a Yale graduate who co-founded Justin.tv, would become the company’s new interim CEO.
Shear, 40, also co-founded Twitch but suddenly resigned in March, leaving the live streaming platform after more than a decade.
In his new temporary role, he will take control of one of the world’s fastest-growing companies – putting an end to rumors that Altman could return.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Founded in 2015 by Altman and 10 others, OpenAI launched ChatGPT a year ago — and its ability to mimic human writing has proven polarizing ever since.
In addition to causing public concern, this uncertainty was apparently felt within OpenAI’s six-member board – according to a New York Times report, one of Altman’s co-founders in Sutskever led the charge to fire him.
In a series of interviews, insiders described how Soviet-born AI researcher Sutskever had been worried about OpenAI’s emerging technology in the run-up to the firing, as the company was enjoying stormy success thanks to Chat GPT.
Sam Altman posted a picture of himself wearing an OpenAI guest pass on Sunday – he said it was the first and last time he would use one
The move, first reported by The Information, comes hours after the surprise firing of the company’s 38-year-old co-founder and sees 40-year-old Emmett Shear (seen here at a web summit in 2018) take over the role interim CEO takes over
The 37-year-old continued to express his belief that his boss wasn’t paying enough attention to the risks of the technology – leading three other board members to vote to remove Altman, which led to two more resigning in protest.
There has been an air of secrecy since then, and Altman, who helped found OpenAI in 2015, only commented on the fall on Friday.
He wrote in two separate posts to X, formerly Twitter: “I love you all.” Today was a strange experience in many ways. But something unexpected is that it was a bit like reading your own eulogy while you’re still alive.
The firing appeared to catch Altman off guard as he did not elaborate on what may have led to his departure. The company he founded cited a lack of communication between him and other board members as its official reason
“The outpouring of love is great.” One takeaway: tell your friends how great you think they are.”
In the other letter, written a few hours before and shortly after his firing, Altman added: “I enjoyed my time at openai.” It changed me personally and hopefully the world a little. What I enjoyed most was working with such talented people.
“I’ll have more to say about what comes next later.”
The company cited a “lack of communication” between Altman and his fellow board members as the official reason.
Founded in 2015 by Altman and 10 others, OpenAI launched ChatGPT a year ago — and its ability to mimic human writing has proven polarizing ever since
Sutskever reportedly led the charge against Altman – after successfully convincing fellow board members Tasha McCauley (left) and Helen Toner (right).
Microsoft provided a $10 billion investment to OpenAI Global LLC, in addition to another $1 billion the company received in 2019.
Last month, employees tried to sell some of their shares worth $90 billion, up from a stock sale a few months ago that valued them at around $29 billion.
Forrester analyst Rowan Curran speculated that Altman’s departure, although “sudden,” probably did not reflect deeper business issues.
“This appears to be a case of leadership change that was about issues with the individual in question, rather than the underlying technology or business,” Curran said.