Startup employees OpenAI, mostly top managers, are threatening a collective resignation in light of the removal of Sam Altman, co-founder dismissed by the board of directors on Friday.
In a letter, cited by the Financial Times and Wired magazine, which has since been published on social media, employees point out “bad faith” on the part of OpenAI's board of directors, for not having proven the reasons that led to Altman's dismissal. . Furthermore, they ask that management resign and demand the appointment of independent directors, or they will be the ones who leave the company.
Note that in a statement on Friday, management said that Altman “was not consistently honest in your communications“, which affected its ability “to exercise their responsibilities".
"The board of directors no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI“, said the statement, without giving further details about Altman’s alleged lack of honesty.
This Monday and days after the dismissal became known, it was announced that Microsoft will hire Sam Altman to lead a team dedicated to Artificial Intelligence.
OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, who also resigned upon hearing the news of Altman's dismissal, will join him.
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In the letter, the employees also threaten to go to work for Altman at Microsoft, which will have guaranteed jobs for all OpenAI employees. According to the Financial Times, more than 500 of the company's 770 employees signed the letter.
"Your conduct has demonstrated that you do not have the skills to supervise OpenAI“, wrote company managers in the letter, including Brad Lightcap and Mira Murati.
Surprisingly, Ilya Sutskever, head of science and who is also a member of the board of directors, signs the letter. Furthermore, several North American media reported that this administrator played a fundamental role in the dismissal of Sam Altman.
In the letter, the executives also criticize the administrators for having replaced Sam Altman with Mira Murati as president (interim) and a few hours later making a new decision and choosing Emmett Shear.
Altman, 38 years old, is considered a visionary of generative artificial intelligence (technology that creates conversations, texts, audio, music, video).
