Over 700 OpenAI employees threaten to resign and join Microsoft after Sam Altman’s ouster

More than 700 OpenAI employees have unanimously signed an open letter voicing out the board to resign alongwith the reinstatement of former CEO Sam Altman. The employees at OpenAI have sincerely expressed their intent to leave the artificial intelligence startup and join at the company's biggest investor, Microsoft. This followed after the news broke of Sam Altman, former CEO of OpenAI, and Greg Brockman, co-founder of OpenAI, getting hired to lead an advanced AI research team in Microsoft.

The employees have written a letter to the OpenAI board making it absolutely clear that they will resign if Altman and Brockman are not retained. The board has indicated their adamant approach by the appointment of a new CEO. The staff did so being fully aware of their status as immigrant visa holders. Employees who resign from OpenAI with immigration visa status might face additional risks.

As per the letter, the employees have accused the board for undermining their work and the company’s goal. OpenAI’s chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, who reportedly led the muscle effort in the removal of Altman, expressed regret over the internal chaos at OpenAI. Sutskever is also among the employees who might resign.

The biggest risk would be a new employer failing to file paperwork on time, leading to a reset to the green card process. Immigration concerns can hinder the resignation of the employees on visas in mass resignation. Microsoft, where CEO Satya Nadella is an immigrant who was once on an H-1B visa himself, has been outspoken in the past about immigration reform, and maintains a dedicated immigration portal for employees.

Microsoft has created a special advanced AI research team to accommodate the former OpenAI employees. Altman has been offered the position of CEO to lead this division. This came shortly after negotiations with OpenAI failed to reinstate Altman as OpenAI’s CEO. This move is unusual for Microsoft itself as it usually reserves the CEO title for leaders of large divisions or acquired companies.

Emmett Shear, the former CEO and co-founder of Twitch, has been named as the interim CEO of OpenAI. Microsoft’s new advanced AI research team, led by Altman and Brockman, was announced after the company revealed the development of its own AI chip. This chip can be used to train large language models which might reduce reliance on Nvidia, world leader in artificial intelligence computing.