After the abrupt firing of former CEO Sam Altman, employees at OpenAI have demanded that the board step down.
They cast doubt on the board’s qualifications and charge it with undermining the firm’s work in a letter.
They also call for the reinstatement of Mr. Altman.
The tech community was taken aback by the dismissal of a prominent person in artificial intelligence (AI) on Friday.
Many signatories to the letter, including senior staff members, threaten to resign if their requests are not granted. Additionally, they claim that Microsoft has guaranteed them positions in OpenAI, should they choose to join the organisation.
Ilya Sutskever, the principal scientist at OpenAI, signed the letter despite being on the board that is currently facing criticism.
In a post on X, which was once Twitter, he admitted his error.
“I now sincerely regret taking part in the board’s activities. I never meant to cause harm to OpenAI. He wrote, “I love everything we’ve built together, and I will stop at nothing to bring the company back together.”
Over the weekend, a fast-paced, chaotic sequence of events gave the impression that Mr. Altman may regain his job, but then it was revealed he was joining Microsoft, a significant OpenAI funder.
According to a post on X by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Mr Altman will be in charge of “a new advanced AI research team”.
“The mission continues” was Mr. Altman’s response to the post announcing his new position, written prior to the letter’s publication.
In the interim, OpenAI’s new leader will be Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch.
He described the position as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” in a piece for X.
However, he noted, it was “handled very badly” and “seriously damaged our trust” how Mr. Altman had been fired.
Mr Altman, 38, was a founding member of the company and is best known for developing the ChatGPT bot. He has grown to be one of the leading personalities in the rapidly expanding field of generative artificial intelligence (AI).
Several in the company he had led were incensed by the high-profile figure’s dismissal, which took them aback and ultimately led them to demand that the board members step down.
