Nearly 500 OpenAI employees threaten to quit unless board resigns, re-appoints Sam Altman

Nearly 500 OpenAI employees on Monday threatened to quit the firm unless the board resigns and re-appoints the ousted CEO Sam Altman.

“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," 490 employees told OpenAI's Board of Directors. “Your conduct has made it clear you did not have the competence to oversee OpenAI.”

Interestingly, the letter’s signees include Ilya Sutskever, the company’s chief scientist and a member of its board, who has been blamed for coordinating the boardroom coup against Altman in the first place.

Shortly 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."

"We, the undersigned, may choose to resign from OpenAI and join the newly announced Microsoft subsidiary run by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman," stated the letter. Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap also were among the letter's signees.

OpenAI named ex-Twitch boss Emmett Shear as interim CEO, while outgoing chief Sam Altman is set to join backer Microsoft in a surprise turn of events for the startup at the heart of an artificial intelligence boom.

The appointments followed Altman's abrupt departure just days earlier as CEO of the ChatGPT maker, and ended speculation that he could return.

Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella said in posts on X that Altman would become CEO of a new research group inside the software maker, along with other departing OpenAI colleagues such as outgoing President Greg Brockman who quit following Altman's ouster.

Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and staked its future on the startup, releasing what it called AI copilots to business customers based on OpenAI's technology.

In a separate post on X, Altman shared Nadella's message with the words, "the mission continues".

Shortly after the internal announcement of Shear's appointment, distraught employees "streamed out" of OpenAI headquarters in San Francisco, The Information reported.

Dozens of staffers internally announced they were quitting the company on Sunday night, according to the report, citing a person with knowledge of the situation. Several leaders of the startup posted on X on Monday: "OpenAI is nothing without its people."

With inputs from Reuters