Summary

  • OpenAI's board of directors is facing mass mutiny as over 500 employees demand their resignation or they will quit, stating that the sudden firing of their lead figures undermines the company's mission.
  • Microsoft's hiring of OpenAI's former CEO, Sam Altman, has created an opportunity for OpenAI employees to join him, as Microsoft has assured them of positions in its newly announced subsidiary.
  • Microsoft's move to potentially hire over 500 OpenAI employees is a strategic one, allowing them to beat the competition by incorporating the talent behind attractive alternatives like ChatGPT into their own AI programs.

It's been a rough moment for OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT. OpenAI's board publically fired its CEO Sam Altman, citing confidence issues that Sam couldn't run the company. Soon after, Microsoft hired Sam Altman to help with its own AI programs. Now, OpenAI faces even more turmoil as over 500 employees have made an ultimatum: the board of directors must resign, or they'll all quit.

Mass mutiny in OpenAI's offices

As reported by Wired, OpenAI's staff is not happy with its board of directors. In an open letter, the employees felt that the sudden firing of their lead figures "undermined our mission and company." Now, 505 employees have signed the letter stating the board must now all resign, or else they're taking their talents elsewhere.

It may seem like a risky move for over 500 people to quit and find new jobs in such a short time. However, Sam Altman's hiring at Microsoft has opened the doors for anyone else who'd like to join him. As the open letter states:

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. We, the undersigned, may choose to resign from OpenAI and join the newly announced Microsoft subsidiary run by Sam Altman and Greg Brockman. Microsoft has assured us that there are positions for all OpenAI employees at this new subsidiary should we choose to join. We will take this step imminently, unless all current board members resign, and the board appoints two new lead independent directors, such as Bret Taylor and Will Hurd, and reinstates Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.

At the time of writing, the board of directors has not responded to the letter.

Can Microsoft really hire over 500 people from OpenAI?

It may sound strange that a company would open a door to so many employees in a short space of time, but Microsoft is clever in doing so. The company has its own AI chatbot tool, called Copilot (Bing Chat rebranded to Copilot), which was created as, essentially, a direct competitor to ChatGPT while incorporating GPT-4 technology. In the last few weeks, we've seen some major strides in Microsoft's Copilot division, such as direct confirmation that Copilot will come to Windows 10.

Now that OpenAI is in disarray and the old CEO is under Microsoft's care, it makes a lot of sense for the technology giant to save a seat for any OpenAI employee who wishes to jump ship. After all, what better way to beat the competition than to hire all the people who made the alternatives so attractive in the first place?

As such, there's a huge chance that Microsoft will make good on their offer and accommodate over 500 OpenAI employees overnight. And even if the board of directors agrees with every term in the open letter, there will always be the persistent threat that workers can lay down their tools and move over to Microsoft instead.