Good morning! Fortune leadership writer Trey Williams wrote today's edition of CHRO Daily.
Hundreds of OpenAI employees over the weekend stood in solidarity with their ousted CEO Sam Altman in a copy-and-paste virtual rendition of “I’m Spartacus."
“OpenAI is nothing without its people,” employees wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The posts played out as a call to arms after OpenAI’s nonprofit board of directors fired Altman on Friday with little to no warning and vague reasoning.
The move came as a shock to employees at the AI company behind ChatGPT, who subsequently sent a letter to the board calling for its members to resign, or they would.
“Your actions have made it obvious that you are incapable of overseeing OpenAl. We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgment, and care for our mission and employees,” the letter, signed by some 700 employees (nearly 90% of the company), read.
In the letter, employees said the board failed to provide specific examples of the allegations lobbed against Altman and accused it of negotiating in bad faith.
One OpenAI employee told Fortune in a message on X that the atmosphere among employees on Monday was congenial, using a heart emoji in response. Another employee, an AI researcher, wrote on X: “Everyone at @OpenAI is united. This is not a civil war. Unless Sam and Greg are brought back, there will be no OpenAI left to govern.”
It is a rare CEO who can foment a mass exodus among employees. Tammy Madsen, professor of management at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, says OpenAI's employees’ commitment to one another and the company’s purported mission—ensuring that artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity—is refreshing.
The employee uprising is also a sign that workers have lost faith in their current leadership, sparked by a lack of internal communication and transparency at the top.
“[Employees are] united because they’re all in agreement about what needs to happen. The question is, can the new CEO tap into that and work with employees rather than having them just work for him?” Madsen says. “You can lose trust in a heartbeat, but it takes a long time to earn it back.”
Emmett Shear, who was named interim CEO on Monday, has made some laudable first steps, Madsen says. In a post on X, Shear said he plans to hire an independent investigator in the first 30 days of his tenure to uncover what led the board to its leadership shakeup decision. Shear also promised to continue speaking with employees and partners about paths forward and to reform the management and leadership teams.
Still, his remarks might do little to quell employee unrest. Signers of the letter to OpenAI’s board threatened to leave the company for the newly announced Microsoft AI research team Altman will lead. Some have already left for the tech giant, a major investor in OpenAI, including cofounder Greg Brockman.
AI talent has been in high demand as the development of the technology rapidly evolves. Jo-Ellen Pozner, an associate professor at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara, says if the board doesn’t tread carefully, most of the employees who signed the letter will likely follow Altman out the door. Other tech giants have begun circling OpenAI in hopes of siphoning talent. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff wrote on X that he’d match OpenAI cash and equity for any AI researcher who joins his company.
Despite the OpenAI board’s apparent mishandling of Altman’s expulsion, Pozner says she hopes the takeaway isn’t that strong board oversight and governance are bad.
Instead, she says the board will likely need new members, must provide clarity around its leadership succession decision, and communicate to employees that while wildly unpopular, it made the right decision that aligned with the company’s mission and vision.
“[OpenAI’s board] was designed to maintain a certain level of vision-driven focus,” Pozner says. “That’s the board’s job. It needs to be protected from pressures from outside.”
Trey Williams
trey.williams@fortune.com
@trey3williams
