Wait, are you simply unaware of the widely reported circumstances in the company at that time? 95% of employees signed a letter to the board stating that they would leave the company if Sam was not brought back [1]. Ilya Sutskever, who was on the board and voted to remove Sam, changed his mind and signed the letter. The board named Mira Murati interim CEO; then she signed the letter, the board fired her, and hired another outside CEO. Several key researchers resigned outright before letter even went out, including Jakub Pachoki, who replaced Ilya after he left [2] .
I would challenge you to name a researcher who didn't resign or threaten to resign. Remember, they all had a plausible landing spot: They could simply show up at Microsoft with all the same leadership, coworkers, salary, compute, and IP the next day. OpenAI as we know it was over unless and until the board gave in.
No, I am not simply unaware. I said my understanding, which appears to be wrong. Thanks for the details. However, I am still confused on which employees of which company. There is the non-profit OpenAI and for-profit OpenAI. Are these articles talking about everything or just the for-profit branch?
I still wager that things would have been different had the board clearly stated their reasons. Doesn't make any sense that they did it months later. The signing of the petition seems mostly group think and political. I would guess that the majority of employees would have followed through.
Lastly, I still can't say any of this makes any sense. Why did the employees even care about Altman? It still seems all very strange to leave your job for someone who doesn't seem to have ever said anything meaningful.
I would challenge you to name a researcher who didn't resign or threaten to resign. Remember, they all had a plausible landing spot: They could simply show up at Microsoft with all the same leadership, coworkers, salary, compute, and IP the next day. OpenAI as we know it was over unless and until the board gave in.
[1] https://www.wired.com/story/95-percent-of-openai-employees-t... [2] https://www.theinformation.com/articles/three-senior-openai-...