OpenAI, the organization at the center of the dayslong boardroom drama over its ouster of CEO Sam Altman, has quite an impressive roster of A-list clients. Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley, an early AI adopter, uses OpenAI's technology for a chatbot that assists wealth managers' research. Then there's payments company Stripe, which uses OpenAI's tech to combat fraud, and Iceland's government, which uses it to help quickly translate foreign language websites into Icelandic in an effort to protect its language.
But with some 700 of OpenAI's roughly 770 employees threatening to quit if Altman, who has inspired a cult-like devotion among his troops and fellow tech executives, is not reinstated, it's advisable, even imperative, for customers to have contingency plans. After all, an OpenAI depleted of so many employees and lacking its visionary leader at the helm might be unable to reliably offer its services and develop new, secure products. Not surprisingly, rivals have begun making overtures to poach unhappy OpenAI workers. On Monday afternoon, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said on X, formerly Twitter, that his company would match the compensation of any OpenAI worker who defects.
