Following the unexpected firing of former CEO Sam Altman, employees at OpenAI have demanded that the board of the artificial intelligence startup step down.

They accuse the board of compromising the firm’s work and cast doubt on its competence in a letter.

They also call for the return of Mr. Altman to his previous position.

The sacking on Friday of a man who is one of the leading figures in artificial intelligence (AI) shocked the tech world.

The letter’s hundreds of signatories, who include senior staff, say they may themselves resign if their demands are not met.

They also state that Microsoft has assured them that there are jobs for all OpenAI staff if they want to join the company.

Lilian Weng, head of safety systems at OpenAI, posted on X – formerly Twitter – that more than 650 of the company’s 770 workers had put their names to the letter – a number that staff members said was rapidly climbing.

“All the efforts started after 1:30 AM, 500+ within two hours and all of this after 2 crazy days with very little sleep”, she wrote.

One of the notable people to sign the letter is OpenAI’s chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever – despite being a member of the board which now finds itself under fire.

Writing on X, he said that he had made a mistake.

“Now 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”, he posted.