A significant portion of the OpenAI workforce has expressed intentions to resign and join Microsoft, which has appointed former OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and ousted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to oversee a new “advanced AI research team.” Over 500 current OpenAI employees state in a letter to the board of directors, as reported by Wired and journalist Kara Swisher this morning, that “Microsoft has assured us that there are positions available for all OpenAI employees at this new subsidiary should we decide to join.”

The OpenAI staff will resign, according to the letter, if the board fails to reinstate Altman and Brockman and subsequently resign. However, considering that the board has already reached a decision to retain Altman and Brockman while appointing a new CEO, it appears that Microsoft may have just hired several hundred of Altman’s employees, assuming the company fulfills its promise to hire them all. OpenAI employees who signed the letter accuse the company’s board of sabotaging their work and having “undermined our mission and company.” They are also against the idea that OpenAI was pushing ahead too quickly without concern for safety. “Our work on AI safety and governance shapes global norms,” they write.

Source: The Verge