several senior OpenAI officials threaten to leave if the board does not resign

The situation is getting bogged down. Most of OpenAI’s senior executives still in office since the surprise dismissal of their director Sam Altman called for the resignation of the entire board of directors in a letter published Monday, November 20 by several American media. Otherwise, they say they are ready to resign. Furthermore, according to several media, some 500 of OpenAI’s 770 employees have threatened to leave the group if administrators refuse to give up their mandate.

Symbol of generative artificial intelligence since the launch of ChatGPT a year ago, OpenAI has been in turmoil since the board’s decision on Friday to separate from the co-founder and number one of the start-up, whose executives are also requesting the reintegration. Minority shareholder of OpenAI, Microsoft announced on Monday that it had recruited Sam Altman, as well as the former president of the young company, Greg Brockman, also landed by the board.

“You don’t have the skills”

For officials who signed the letter to the board of directors, the dismissal of Sam Altman “puts in danger” the work carried out by the OpenAI teams. “Your conduct demonstrated that you did not have the skills to supervise OpenAI”wrote the twelve directors of the company.

Among the signatories of the letter are number two Brad Lightcap and technical manager Mira Murati. More surprising is the presence of scientific manager Ilya Sutskever in the list. Himself a member of the board of directors, he is suspected of having played a key role in the dismissal of Sam Altman.