Almost All OpenAI Employees Threaten To Quit And Join Microsoft

OpenAI – an American artificial intelligence research company, who is behind ChatGPT – came into the limelight after 95 per cent of the company’s employees threatened to quit and join Microsoft, an American multinational technology corporation.

Samuel Harris Altman’s sudden exit from OpenAI shocked the world. He previously served as chief executive officer (CEO) of OpenAI from 2019 to 2023. However, he has now joined Microsoft as a lead of an advanced AI research team. 

The dismissal of former boss Sam Altman led to several employees resigning the post. In the midst of the layoff tsunami, almost 700 out of 770 employees at OpenAI have threatened to quit if the board of the artificial intelligence company doesn’t bring back Sam Altman. 

What happened to OpenAI employees?

The letter’s hundreds of signatories, who include senior staff at OpenAI, say they may themselves resign if the company doesn’t bring back Altman. In a letter, they questioned the board’s competence. 

OpenAI employees said that they would leave the company and join Microsoft. The employees said that Microsoft, the biggest investor in OpenAI, has assured them that there are jobs for all OpenAI employees.

Nearly 700 of OpenAI’s 770 employees signed a letter, threatening to quit the company. Mira Murati, who was made the interim CEO after Altman’s departure from the company, and Ilya Sutskever, who played a major role in Altman’s ousting as CEO, have also signed the letter.

Ilya Sutskever also wrote on social media platform X, previously Twitter, that he regretted the role he played in Altman’s exit from OpenAI.

The employees said in a letter that the way Altman and Greg Brockman were removed from the board of OpenAI has “jeopardized all of their work and undermined their mission and company.” 

Later on, they said that they might resign from OpenAI and join Microsoft’s new subsidiary. Microsoft is also one of the World’s Best Employers 2023. Microsoft was in second position on Forbes’ ‘World’s Best Employers’ list. Microsoft topped TIME’s World’s best companies of 2023. The company received an overall score of 96.46 out of the possible 100.