It has been a whirlwind weekend for OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
After being fired on November 17 by the board of the company he founded, Altman found a new job by Sunday night when Microsoft (MSFT) -) — which owns a 49% stake in OpenAI — announced that it was hiring him to lead up their own artificial intelligence team.
Related: Meet Sam Altman, the man behind OpenAI's revolutionary ChatGPT
Now, Altman is even getting backing from the employees he left behind at OpenAI and his former workers are taking aim at the board of directors that ousted him in the first place.
"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," a letter signed by 505 of 700 employees at the company sent to the company's board said.
Breaking: 505 of 700 employees @OpenAI tell the board to resign. pic.twitter.com/M4D0RX3Q7a
— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) November 20, 2023
One of the biggest complaints from the group was the secrecy surrounding the decision to remove Altman in the first place. In addition to sneaking the announcement into a Friday afternoon news dump, the company's reason for terminating Altman was extremely vague.
The statement of Altman's termination said he was "consistently candid in his communications" with the board, but that explanation apparently wasn't enough for OpenAI's rank and file who are calling for the board to resign or face a mass resignation themselves.
"Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAI. We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgement and care for our mission and employees," the letter published online said.
"We, the undersigned, may choose to resign from OpenAI and join the newly announced Microsoft subsidiary run by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman."
Perhaps shockingly, one of the employees who signed the letter was Ilya Sutskever, a co-founder of the company and its chief scientist, who actually sits on the board that just fired Altman. Ilya took to social media to express his regret for his actions.
"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," Sutskever said.
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.
— Ilya Sutskever (@ilyasut) November 20, 2023
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