In a letter to the board, 490 OpenAI employees, including CTO Mira Murati and COO Brad Lightcap, said that the firing of Altman had “jeopardized all of this work and undermined our mission and company” and that they would quit and join the ex-OpenAI CEO at Microsoft if the board did not resign.The letter was first reported by Wired on Monday. Tech journalist Kara Swisher also shared the letter online and said that the list of signees was growing.
“Your conduct has made it clear you did not have the competence to oversee OpenAI,” the letter said.
The letter’s signees include Ilya Sutskever, the company’s chief scientist and a member of its board, who had been accused of coordinating the boardroom coup against Altman.
Just before the letter was released, Sutskever posted on X: “I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we’ve built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.”
On November 18, the ChatGPT-maker company, OpenAI fired its CEO Sam Altman.
Why Sam Altman, the poster boy of AI, was sacked by the OpenAI Board
In a blogpost, the company stated that the board “no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI”. It also added that Altman “was not consistently candid in his communications”.
He was replaced by Mira Murati, who was previously OpenAI’s chief technology officer (CTO). Subsequently, she was also removed from her position after she publicly aligned herself with Altman.
Supporting Shear as the new interim CEO, the latest company memo seen by The New York Times, stated, “The board said Mr. Shear has a “unique mix of skills, expertise and relationships that will drive OpenAI forward.”
This memo was signed by each of the four directors on the company’s board; Adam D’Angelo, Helen Toner, Ilya Sutskever, and Tasha McCauley.
Talking about reinstating Sam Altman, the memo said, “The board firmly stands by its decision as the only path to advance and defend the mission of OpenAI.”
The memo added, “Put simply, Sam’s behavior and lack of transparency in his interactions with the board undermined the board’s ability to effectively supervise the company in the manner it was mandated to do.”
(with input from agency)
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