- Satya Nadella says Microsoft welcomes AI talent who want to leave OpenAI.
- “We will definitely have room for all AI talent,” Kara Swisher said on the show podcast.
- Nearly all OpenAI employees have threatened to quit unless former CEO Sam Altman is reinstated.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says his company is open to hiring AI talent who want to leave OpenAI following the ouster of former CEO Sam Altman.
Altman’s sudden departure led to a weekend of drama that ended on Monday with former OpenAI CEO Greg Brockman joining Microsoft to head a new research team for advanced artificial intelligence. Emmett Shear, former CEO of Twitch, was named the new interim CEO of OpenAI on the same day.
But the chaos isn’t over yet. Nearly all OpenAI employees have threatened to quit unless the board resigns and Altman is not reinstated as CEO, according to reports letter signed by hundreds of employees.
Nadella appears to be ready for exactly this mass exit scenario.
“We will definitely have a place where all the talented AI people can come here and continue the mission, and we will support whoever stays, even at OpenAI or wherever,” Nadella told journalist Kara Swisher in an episode of her show podcastwhich aired on Monday.
Nadella isn’t the only technology executive looking to profit from OpenAI’s problems.
On Monday, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff promised to honor contracts for OpenAI researchers who opted out of joining Salesforce.
“Salesforce will connect any OpenAI researcher who has resigned from OTE’s full cash and equity to immediately join our Salesforce Einstein Trusted AI research team led by Silvio Savarese” – Benioff he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Representatives for Microsoft and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider made outside normal business hours.
