In the wake of Sam Altman’s ousting from his position as CEO of OpenAI by the company’s board, more than 700 of its employees have threatened to quit in support of Altman.
Capitalizing on the opportunity to acquire new talent, Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benioff announced on Monday that he will match the existing salaries of any OpenAI researcher who resigns over Altman’s firing.
These researchers would then join the Salesforce AI research team, bringing their expertise to the CRM giant’s Einstein AI Platform – which burst onto the CX scene at Dreamforce.
Benioff made the offer via X, formerly Twitter:
Salesforce will match any OpenAI researcher who has tendered their resignation full cash & equity OTE to immediately join our Salesforce Einstein Trusted AI research team under Silvio Savarese. Send me your cv directly to [email protected]. Einstein is the most successful… pic.twitter.com/1RXoc9ekeo
— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) November 20, 2023
The Story So Far
OpenAI has grabbed a lot of headlines in recent times, not only for its cutting-edge AI technology but for its internal goings-on as well.
In 2021, for example, OpenAI employees left to start up the rival AI research company, Anthropic, which now has its own version of ChatGPT in the form of ‘Claude’ that Zoom embedded into its CCaaS platform in May this year.
Since, it has come to light that OpenAI’s board of directors approached Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, to propose a merger.
Now, an apparent impasse between Altman and the board has created division in the company at a time when the stakes couldn’t be higher as competitors line up with ChatGPT alternatives.
OpenAI’s Chief Operating Officer, Brad Lightcap, explained the decision to remove Altman in a message to employees on Saturday: “We can say definitively that the board’s decision was not made in response to malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, safety, or security/privacy practices.
This was a breakdown in communication between Sam and the board. Our position as a company remains extremely strong, and Microsoft remains fully committed to our partnership.
Whatever the “breakdown in communication” was about, it has led to a major backlash from both employees and investors.
Anonymous informants have revealed that investors Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, and Tiger Global Management would like OpenAI to rehire Altman and former OpenAI President Greg Brockman. They also shared that Altman is keen to return to his post at OpenAI.
The same is true of Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella, who quickly created a new AI unit at Microsoft for Alman to spearhead, but has since said that he would encourage Altman to return to his role at OpenAI on certain conditions. Those conditions include the resignation of the OpenAI board, and the company’s approach to governance would need to be reassessed.
OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever is already looking to distance himself from the decision to fire Altman.
In a post on X yesterday, Sutskever wrote:
I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we’ve built together, and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.
Sutskever has since gone further in signing the following note to OpenAI’s board of directors.
Salesforce Bids to Bolster Its Workforce
Salesforce’s mass job offer to OpenAI employees represents a doubling down on its layoff U-turn in September, alongside signaling its intent to further expand its AI portfolio.
Most of this revolves around its Einstein 1 Platform and Einstein 1 Copilot, which functions as an AI assistant across all of its apps.
Salesforce’s AI arsenal runs deeper than this, however.
For instance, the CRM leader made its Salesforce Code Builder generally available alongside its AnyPoint Code Builder, agreed to acquire Airkit.AI, and launched a generative AI collaboration with Accenture in little more than two months.
