Three days after the surprise dismissal of its boss, Sam Altman, anger is brewing in the ranks of OpenAI. Most of the senior executives of the artificial intelligence start-up still in office have demanded the resignation of the entire board of directors, failing which they say they are ready to leave the company, according to a letter published Monday 20 November by several American media.
These positions come after a tumultuous weekend: the board of directors of OpenAI, symbol of generative artificial intelligence since the launch of ChatGPT a year ago, created a surprise on Friday by announcing the dismissal with immediate effect of Sam Altman following“a deliberative review process of the board, which concluded that he had not always been candid in his communications with the board, hindering his ability to fulfill his responsibilities”. This instance no longer has “confidence in his ability to lead OpenAI”she then added.
Several managers of the company founded at the end of 2015 have since announced their resignations, in particular the chairman of the board of directors Greg Brockman. This departure is “the only way to advance and defend OpenAI’s mission”wrote the board of directors (CA) in a note sent to its employees Sunday evening, according to an article in New York Times broadcast during the night from Sunday to Monday.
Earthquake in Silicon Valley
The ouster on Friday of Sam Altman, superstar and co-founder of OpenAI, at the origin of the artificial intelligence platform ChatGPT, caused an earthquake in Silicon Valley (California), where he had become in one year the one of the main figures.
“It is clear that the process and communication around Sam’s removal [Altman] were very poorly managed, which seriously damaged confidence” in OpenAI, wrote on his interim replacement, Emmett Shear, co-founder of the video streaming platform Twitch which he led until March. He undertook for the next thirty days to carry out an independent audit on the reasons for this departure and to “reform the management team (…) to make it a force capable of obtaining results for our clients”.