• News

OpenAI employees call for board's resignation after Sam Altman ousting

505 of OpenAI's 700 employees have signed an open letter requesting members of the board to resign.

Donovan Erskine

November 20, 2023 8:05 AM

2

On Friday, we learned the surprising news that Sam Altman had been ousted as the CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. In another unexpected twist, reports began to surface over the weekend that Altman was in talks with the board of directors to reprise his role as CEO just days after his firing. That didn’t come to fruition as Altman joined Microsoft last night to lead a new advanced AI research team. However, the fallout at OpenAI continues. 505 employees have signed a letter ordering the board to resign.

This morning, journalist Kara Swisher revealed a letter sent to OpenAI’s board of directors, voicing frustration over the firing of Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.

Later in the letter, the employees threaten to join Altman and Brockman’s newly-formed AI research team at Microsoft should the board not resign.

Board member Ilya Sutskever expressed his regret in a tweet following the release of the letter. “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.”

It’s been a dramatic 72 hours at OpenAI, and the situation seems far from over. You can expect to read the latest updates on the OpenAI and Sam Altman situation right here on Shacknews.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a young journalist from Maryland, who likes to game. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge Scream nerd and film fanatic that will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_