More than 700 employees of OpenAI are threatened with termination

V ponedeljek je več kot 700 od 770 zaposlenih podjetja OpenAI podpisalo pismo z “grozilno” vsebino. Grozijo namreč z odpovedjo, kar postavlja prihodnost OpenAI-ja na nitko. Zaposleni enega najuspešnejših AI start-upov zahtevajo, da pred kratkim odstavljeni izvršni direktor Sam Altman pride nazaj in zavzame svojo nekdanjo pozicijo v podjetju.

One of the members of the board of directors, who dismissed Altman from his position on Friday, changed his mind on Monday and signed a letter with the other employees. Three people familiar with the matter confirmed this to the New York Times.

Member of the board of directors Ilya Sutskever je tudi objavil na družbenem omrežju X, nekdanjem Twitterju, da “globoko obžaluje svoje sodelovanje pri dejanjih odbora”.

Odstavitev Altmana s strani štiričlanskega odbora – ki je dejal, da Altman do njih ni bil iskren, vendar ni pojasnil, kako – je sprožila divji vikend, v katerem se je Altman pridružil Microsoftu, da bi začel nov projekt na področju umetne inteligence. Microsoft, ki je v OpenAI vložil 13 milijard dolarjev, dejansko ima 49-odstotni delež v podjetju.

The employee letter requesting Altman's reappointment says Microsoft has assured OpenAI employees that there are positions for them if they decide to join its new AI arm.

OpenAI and Microsoft declined to comment. Emmett Shear, who was named interim CEO by OpenAI's board late Sunday night, could not be reached for comment Monday because he was on another call.

The upheaval calls into question the future of one of the fastest-growing companies in Silicon Valley history. At a time when the industry was shaken by mass layoffs, it was OpenAI that created hundreds of new jobs.

“It is the debacle of the decade,” je dejal ustanovitelj Lexiona Gaurav Oberoi, start-upa, ki se zanaša na OpenAI za pomoč podjetjem pri poenostavitvi pravnih, prodajnih in dobaviteljskih pogodb. “This is a lesson in how you can destroy enormous value and your reputation overnight.“

Zgodaj v ponedeljek je Shear v objavi na X-u v 530-ih besedah zapisal, da namerava najeti neodvisnega preiskovalca, da pregleda podrobnosti pred in po Altmanovem odpustu. Zavezal se je, da bo pridobil vpogled zaposlenih, partnerjev in vlagateljev, ki naj bi oblikoval, kako bo oblikoval vodstveno ekipo podjetja. “I believe it will take longer than a month to make real progress,” je dejal Shear, nekdanji izvršni direktor spletnega mesta za prenos v živo Twitch. Pozneje se je Shear pogovarjal s Satyo Nadello, izvršnim direktorjem Microsofta.

Med ponedeljkovim javljanjem na televiziji Bloomberg je Nadella dejal, da je njegovo sporočilo Shearju jasno. “Hey, look, we're very, very committed to OpenAI and the company's mission and journey, and they can count on us,” je dejal Nadella. “It was never my intention to harm OpenAI,” je dejal Sutskever, soustanovitelj OpenAI-ja. V svoji objavi na X-u je zapisal: “I love everything we've built together and will do everything I can to bring the company back together.” Altman je sporočilo delil na svojem profilu in dodal tri rdeče srčke.

Sutskever did not respond to a request for comment.

In addition to Altman, several key OpenAI employees have already joined Microsoft's new AI arm. Among others, Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, who left the company in solidarity after Altman was ousted. Early Monday morning, Brockman said in a post on X that Altman and a trio of OpenAI researchers, Jakub Pachocki, Szymon Sidor, and Aleksander Madry, would be joining him at Microsoft.