In the aftermath of Sam Altman's ouster as CEO of OpenAI - the firm behind ChatGPT - and his subsequent hiring by Microsoft to head a research lab, about 500 of OpenAI's roughly 770 employees have signed a letter threatening to quit unless the company's board resigns and reappoints Altman back to his former job.

"The process through which [the board] terminated Altman and removed Brockman from the board has jeopardized all of this work and undermined our mission and company," the letter read. "Your conduct has made it clear you didn't have the competence to oversee OpenAI."

Staffers who signed the letter have also threatened to join Microsoft after it hired Altman.

Among those who initially voted to kick Altman and demote OpenAI president Greg Brockman from his position as board chairman was chief scientist and board director Ilya Sutskever.

He has since expressed his remorse for his personal participation in the incident and sided with the employees threatening to leave OpenAI.

"I deeply regret my participation in the board's actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "I love everything we've built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company."

Nevertheless, this admission of grief did not help the company as investors were not pleased with the outcome of the debacle over the weekend.

(Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman looks on during the APEC CEO Summit at Moscone West on November 16, 2023, in San Francisco, California. The APEC summit is being held in San Francisco and runs through November 17.

Altman and Brockman: 'The Mission Continues'

Meanwhile, Brockman has also joined Altman's team at Microsoft, which CEO Satya Nadella said would "set a new pace for innovation," additionally suggesting that other OpenAI colleagues would be welcome to join and given the "resources needed for their success."

Both Altman and Brockman were cited by TechCrunch saying the same buzzword: "The mission continues."

With such statements provided by Microsoft and former OpenAI executives, it could be seen that OpenAI might turn the Bill Gates-founded company from a close partner to a bitter competitor.

But instead of attempting to entice Altman and Brockman back to their old jobs, Sutskever and the rest of OpenAI's board doubled down by saying that they "stood by its decision as the only path to advance and defend the mission of OpenAI" and criticized Altman's "behavior and lack of transparency."

To prove its point, the board immediately hired former Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear as interim CEO.

Read Also: Sam Altman Seen Visiting OpenAI Headquarters for the Last Time

Altman vs. Sutskever

TechCrunch also revealed that Altman's removal as OpenAI CEO was his clashes with Sutskever over differences in reducing AI's potential harm to the public.

Sutskever feared that OpenAI was commercializing its technologies too quickly at the expense of safety. He was also reported to say he was "infuriated" by a number of announcements at OpenAI's first annual developer conference, DevDay like custom GPTs that OpenAI has said might one day run autonomously.

As a result, Sutskever told the company that he felt removing Altman was "necessary" to protect OpenAI's mission of "making AI beneficial to humanity,"

However, neither he nor the board cited - and continued to refuse to do so - specific incidents involving Altman as the cause for removing him.

Related Article: Sam Altman Hired by Microsoft Days After His Termination in OpenAI