HUNDREDS of OpenAI staffers are calling for the resignation of the ChatGPT company’s board, and threatening to quit themselves, after a tumultuous weekend that began with the surprise ouster of CEO Sam Altman and ended with Altman being hired by Microsoft.

The more than 500 employees accused in a letter the OpenAI board of mishandling Altman’s firing, failing to provide sufficient evidence for claims that Altman had not been candid with the board, and “negotiating in bad faith” with the company’s executive leadership.

“Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAI,” wrote the employees. “We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgment and care for our mission and employees.”

The employees also warned that they would “imminently” follow Altman to Microsoft unless the board resigns and reinstates Altman and Greg Brockman, the former OpenAI president who was also removed by the board Friday.

Among the signatories is Mira Murati, who had been named by the board as Altman’s interim successor Friday, as well as Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s co-founder, chief scientist and board member who had been widely reported as having played a role in Altman’s dismissal. Murati’s promotion has since been superseded by the appointment of incoming interim CEO Emmett Shear, the 40-year-old co-founder of the livestreaming company Twitch.

On Monday, as news of the letter emerged, Sutskever posted an apology on X that acknowledged his contribution to the leadership crisis, which appeared to revolve around tensions between Altman and the board about the pace and scope of AI development.

“I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions,” he said. “I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we’ve built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.”

The letter highlights the internal divides at OpenAI that have burst into public view after Altman’s firing, and raises further doubts about the fate of OpenAI’s three non-employee board members. That list includes Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, technology entrepreneur Tasha McCauley and Helen Toner, director of strategy and foundational research grants at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

As they sought to manage the fallout of Altman’s firing, the letter claimed, members of the board “informed the leadership team that allowing the company to be destroyed ‘would be consistent with the mission’” of OpenAI, which is to “ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.”

The rebuke by some of OpenAI’s most senior employees also underscores Altman’s loyal following and Microsoft’s opportunity to benefit from the situation.

“Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAI employees,” the letter added.

After Sutskever posted his message to X, Altman amplified the apology by quote-posting it. He added a short commentary consisting of three heart emojis.

By hiring Altman and Brockman amid the chaos at the top of OpenAI, Microsoft has managed to acquire one of the most successful management teams in artificial intelligence without having to buy the company — whose pre-chaos valuation was US$86 billion.

At least three other senior researchers — Jakub Pachocki, Aleksander Mądry, and Szymon Sidor — have reportedly left OpenAI.

“The head and the arms and one of the legs [of OpenAI] have gone to Microsoft,” said tech analyst Azeem Azhar, author of the newsletter Exponential View. “This is an enormous opportunity for Microsoft because it gets to take Sam Altman and Greg Brockman and probably a large part of the leadership team, and many of the very best engineers and researchers.”

At Microsoft, Altman and Brockman will have access to huge amounts of capital and compute power, Azhar said, as well as the tech giant’s support to develop other parts of the AI tech stack, including chips and consumer electronics. Altman was reportedly trying to raise billions of dollars from investors for a new chip project in the weeks running up to his firing. Altman and OpenAI had also been linked to a hardware venture with former Apple head of design Jony Ive that was reportedly hoping to build the “iPhone of AI,” backed by Softbank’s Masayoshi Son.

“I’m sure [Microsoft] will give Sam the leeway to go up and down the stack,” Azhar said. “Microsoft itself is developing its own chips for AI. Well, Altman’s group can probably help with that now, and they will be developing consumer electronics like computers and so on. Sam can start to head into that direction now through this group.”

Dan Ives, senior equity research analyst covering the technology sector at Wedbush Securities, said, “If Microsoft lost Altman he could have gone to Amazon, Google, Apple, or a host of other tech companies craving to get the face of AI globally in their doors.”

(SD-Agencies)