By Rounak Jain
A mutiny is brewing at OpenAI after the company’s board refused to bring back Sam Altman and Greg Brockman. While they have been hired by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), OpenAI’s senior executives, engineers, and researchers are openly voicing their protest now.
The Satya Nadella-led Microsoft is OpenAI’s single largest investor, with a 49% stake.
In what could prove to be a disastrous move for the leader in the AI industry, OpenAI’s board has more trouble on its hands, with dozens of employees either quitting or publicly protesting against it.
Some of these employees are high-level executives across the company’s research and engineering divisions.
This includes Mira Murati, the CTO of OpenAI, who was also appointed as the interim CEO before Emmett Shear replaced her. “OpenAI is nothing without its people,” said Mira on her social media.
Brad Lightcap, the company’s chief operating officer, Jason Kwon, the chief strategy officer; and other staff, including engineers, researchers, and those from the product team, all joined in to support Altman, Brockman, and other OpenAI employees who were either fired or quit the company in protest.
“OpenAI is nothing without its people,” said all the protesting posts interestingly.
Altman acknowledged many of these posts, responding to their messages with the “heart” emoji.
It’s unclear what these employees at OpenAI are asking for right now.
Both Altman and Brockman, apart from their former OpenAI colleagues, have been scooped up by Microsoft in a shock announcement by its CEO Nadella.
For what it’s worth, OpenAI’s new CEO, Shear, has dismissed rumors that Altman was fired due to AI safety concerns. He has also said the board’s strategy also involves commercializing AI.
This clears the air on two aspects that were being widely speculated as the possible reasons behind Altman’s firing.
With Altman finding a home in Microsoft, how OpenAI deals with the mutiny on its hands remains to be seen now.
Produced in association with Benzinga