Mass protest at OpenAI: Employees demand board resignation after Altman’s firing
OpenAI employees, outraged by the dismissal of former CEO Sam Altman, signed a letter demanding the resignation of the entire board of directors. According to Insider, almost all of the company’s employees joined the protest – about 700 out of 770 people.
In a letter to the board, staff members including CTO Mira Murati and COO Brad Lightcap said that the loss of Altman “significantly undermined” OpenAI’s mission and stability. If their demands were not met, many employees expressed their willingness to follow Altman to Microsoft.
Murati also launched a flash mob on Twitter, posting the following words: “OpenAI is nothing without its people.” It was quickly joined by other employees of the company, who published the same slogan, DEV.ua reports.
The letter was supported by Ilya Sutskever, the company’s chief researcher, who expressed regret for his earlier support of Altman’s suspension. He said that after discussing the situation with his colleagues and family, he realized his mistake and was ready to correct it.
It also became known that Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch, was appointed as the interim head of OpenAI. The move was met with sharp criticism from employees, who accused the board of directors of lacking competence and transparency in decision-making.
The situation at OpenAI has attracted considerable attention in the global media, as the company plays a key role in the development of artificial intelligence and is the developer of the popular ChatGPT chatbot.
