Hundreds of ChatGPT developers are threatening to quit and move to Microsoft

Ultimately, Microsoft benefited from the leadership chaos at OpenAI. Deposed OpenAI boss Sam Altman and probably hundreds of other employees will work for the software giant in the future. In a letter to OpenAI’s board of directors, 505 of the approximately 700 employees threatened to resign. In the letter, they write: “Microsoft has assured us that there are openings for all OpenAI employees at this new subsidiary, should we decide to do so.”

The letter was published on X (formerly Twitter).

The letter goes on to say that OpenAI employees will leave the company if the board does not rehire Altman and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and then resign. The board did not respond to the request and appointed Emmett Shear, co-founder of gaming-focused streaming service Twitch, as the new CEO.

Altman and leading OpenAI people will lead a new research team, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced. Microsoft is a major investor in OpenAI and, according to media reports, tried unsuccessfully to return Altman to the top position at OpenAI this weekend, without success.

Now Microsoft is suddenly becoming a stronger player in the race to develop artificial intelligence. As a major investor, the group not only has continuous access to OpenAI’s technology, but now also has a number of its inventors in-house.

Altman was removed from the CEO position of the company he co-founded on Friday. According to media reports, a dispute over direction at OpenAI led to Altman’s departure. Some leading figures, such as technology chief Ilya Sutskever, believed that Altman was trying to bring the artificial intelligence software to market too quickly and with too commercial an approach. They got the majority of the board of directors on their side.

The interim boss also has to go

OpenAI’s backers, including Microsoft, failed in their attempt to bring Altman back. Instead, the board of directors even removed interim boss Mira Murati, who was only appointed on Friday, and who is said to have sided with Altman in the meantime.

After hours of negotiations, the employees were presented with a new interim boss last weekend, according to industry service ‘The Information’ and the Bloomberg news agency. That’s why it’s the co-founder and longtime boss of the gaming-focused streaming service Twitch, Emmett Shear.

Ilya Sutskever, who is said to have been involved in Altman’s dismissal, wrote on X on Monday that he regretted the board’s decision.

OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit organization with the mission to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of everyone. However, when it became clear that donations would not generate the necessary billions in investment, a for-profit company was formed with Altman at the helm. He brought Microsoft on board as an investor, thereby ensuring OpenAI’s access to the necessary computing power. However, the conflict between the two approaches deepened.

The chatbot ChatGPT can formulate sentences at the language level of a human. Its publication about a year ago sparked an AI hype. OpenAI has therefore become a pioneer in the technology. Microsoft made a multibillion-dollar pact with the company to bring its technology into the company’s products. Other tech heavyweights such as Google, Amazon and the Facebook group Meta presented competing software.

(sda/awp/dpa)