Adam D’Angelo, a board member and the CEO of Quora, is reportedly involved in the discussions, along with OpenAI investors who have been pushing for Altman’s return. These most recent discussions are reportedly a significant development because, according to the report, board members “largely refused to engage” with Altman until Monday.
Meanwhile, if OpenAI employees jump ship, Microsoft will match their pay, according to Kevin Scott, the company’s chief technology officer. The majority of the company’s employees have threatened to leave if Altman and Greg Brockman, the former president, are not reinstated by the OpenAI board as they were fired in protest. On Monday, the board was informed that Microsoft would also consider hiring them, and Scott has since confirmed this.
Scott wrote on X, formerly Twitter,” To my partners at OpenAI: We have seen your petition and appreciate your potential interest in joining Sam Altman at Microsoft’s new AI Research Lab.” ” Be aware that, if necessary, your position at Microsoft will match your pay and advance the mission of the company.”
We have seen your petition and are grateful that you might want to work with Sam Altman at Microsoft’s upcoming AI Research Lab, my OpenAI partners. Be aware that, if necessary, your position at Microsoft will match your pay and advance the mission of the company as a whole.
November 21, 2023, Kevin Scott ( @kevin_scott )
According to CNBC, it is unclear whether Scott’s offer depends on Altman joining Microsoft in person. In any case, given that many tech companies are competing to hire AI experts, resigning OpenAI employees might not be too difficult to find a new position. For instance, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff stated that if a former OpenAI researcher joins the company, they will be paid on par with them and given equity.
Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella reiterated his desire to continue working with OpenAI in interviews he gave after announcing that Altman and Brockman would be joining his business on Monday. But that depends on whether OpenAI users stay there or visit Microsoft, he said. I therefore have both options available to me, but I wo n’t stop innovating. At this point, Nadella added,” I believe it is abundantly clear that the governance of the ChatGPT operator needs to change.”
He and Brockman spent the weekend having crunch talks with the OpenAI board in an effort to regain their jobs after Altman’s abrupt firing. Emmett Shear, a former CEO of Twitch, has been named interim CEO by the board after those initial discussions were unsuccessful.
Although it claimed that Altman had not” consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities,” the OpenAI board has declined to disclose the precise justification for its decision to fire him. Shear promised to hire an impartial investigator” to dig into the entire process leading up to this point and generate a full report” after taking control. Bloomberg reports that Shear has threatened to leave OpenAI if the board does n’t give him a clear justification for why it ousted Altman.
