In Short
- Sam Altman's abrupt exit and return at OpenAI caused confusion among employees.
- Employees still don't know the reason behind Altman's exit.
- Many employees are also looking for other jobs.
Last month, Sam Altman's sudden exit and dramatic comeback at OpenAI was all that the tech world could talk about. The young CEO was abruptly fired from his position and got to know about it barely minutes before it was announced. The reason behind Altman's departure from OpenAI is still unclear. Recently, Altman was asked about the reason behind his exit in an interview with The Verge and he didn't really respond to the question.
And now, as per reports, even OpenAI employees aren't aware about the reason behind Altman's sudden exit from the OpenAI board. The employees, thus, feel that they are being kept in the dark about the same and are looking for other jobs already.
OpenAI employees ask why Sam Altman was fired?
At the time of announcing Altman's departure from OpenAI, the board had said that the reason behind firing him was that he had been "inconsistent" with his communications. Therefore, the board said, they had "lost their trust in Altman's ability to lead OpenAI."
As per a Semafor report, OpenAI employees still don't know the detailed reason behind Altman's departure. And this is making them feel "uneasy." The report also mentions that many employees even started looking out for other job opportunities, despite Altman's return being confirmed.
A senior OpenAI employee told Semafor that even though they are "happy" about Sam being back at the company, they are still unaware of many things.
"We’ve been told repeatedly that the heart of the board’s dispute with Sam was not over AI safety, but we haven’t been told what that is. So things still feel shaky,” the employee added.
The role employees played in Altman's comeback
Altman was reinstated as OpenAI CEO last week. This was after over 700 of OpenAI’s 770 employees had demanded that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman be reinstated else they would resign and join Microsoft, which had already ensured jobs for all of them.
The employees also asked for a new board to be formed and put their demands forward in a letter which was also signed by Mira Murati and Ilya Sutskever (who played a major role in Altman’s ousting as CEO).
Sutskever, meanwhile, had later posted on X that he ‘regretted’ the role he played in Altman’s exit and didn’t mean to harm OpenAI in any way. When Altman was reinstated, he expressed his happiness over the decision. Even though Sutskever is no longer a part of the OpenAI board, Altman, in a post, said that they will continue exploring how they can work with him in future.