In a letter, they question the board’s competence, and accuse it of undermining the firm’s work.
They also demand Mr Altman’s reinstatement.
The sacking on Friday of a man who is one of the leading figures in artificial intelligence (AI) shocked the tech world.
The letter’s many signatories, who include senior staff, say they may themselves resign if their demands are not met.
They also state that Microsoft has assured them that there are jobs for all OpenAI staff if they want to join the company.
Kind of funny seeing OpenAI’s board in FAFO mode.
For people like me who don’t know what FAFO stands for. It’s “fuck around & find out”.
But yeah, what a mess to behold. It’s very entertaining.
It’s always been amazing to me when a few aquire some power, then decide to wield it without thinking about the consequences.
I mean it’s happened often enough you’d think they’d learn from other’s mistakes … yet here we are … again.
Tbf they are a non profit company with the goal of bettering humanity and that doesn’t feel like the style he had while running the company.
If all these people are so happy to jump straight to corporate it’s possible they didn’t really subscribe to the vision either.
I remember people talking about Musk like he was god’s gift to humanity a few years ago. These tech bros aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be.
They are not quite a nonprofit. They started as a nonprofit but back in 2019 they wanted some VC money so they setup a for profit arm and got billions in investment.
That’s fair. As you say not all tech bros are honest.
The problem is they went chasing after him post-firing, and that tells me they weren’t primarily acting on moral issues as much as they were on power - where he was doing his own thing vs following their lead.
edit – Just found this that states OpenAI is a mix of profit/non-profit which contributed to the craziness that unfolded the last few days.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67481548
The board is the only aspect of OpenAI without a profit motive. The employees have shares in the company they want to sell for yachtloads of cash and while collective action to get super rich is an employee’s right, the board aren’t really the bad guys in the arrangement.