So the deadline has passed, The board did not resign en masse, majority of employees sent a demand letter for all the board to resign and reinstate Altman, The qestion remains - Will he go back to OpenAI, where he was fired by the board or will he join Microsoft, the tech giant that has 49% share of OpenAI?
Satya Nadella may have prematurely announced Sam Altman’s hiring and the creating of Microsoft AI Research Division, Sam Altman being the CEO, together with his partner an Chairman at OpenAI Greg Brockman.
We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners. We look forward to getting to know Emmett…
— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) November 20, 2023
It seems the negotiations are still continuing with Sam Altman coming back to OpenAI. We’ll probably know in a matter of days (at the rate stuff is going on right now).
The employee letter going around has more than 700+ employees signing up, and threatening to quit.
+700 of the 770 employees have now signed and said they will pack up and leave. Seems like the board will be board over nothing.
— Linus (●ᴗ●) (@LinusEkenstam) November 20, 2023
Here is what we know so far pic.twitter.com/g3SGP8K5oL
One notable signatories is Ilya Sutskever, one of the board member who was rumored to have ignited this issue in the first place. He’s also considered as one of the top AI engineer in his field today.
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.
— Ilya Sutskever (@ilyasut) November 20, 2023
In any case Microsoft is on a win-win scenario here. If the board resists to resign, Sam and a bulk of OpenAI employees would surely join his exodus to Microsoft – and if he decides to stay, Microsoft $10 billion commitment still stands.
Update 11/22/2023 : Sam Altman is back as CEO on OpenAI
We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo.
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) November 22, 2023
We are collaborating to figure out the details. Thank you so much for your patience through this.