Hundreds of staff at OpenAI threatened to quit the leading artificial intelligence company on Monday and join Microsoft, deepening a crisis triggered by the shock sacking of CEO Sam Altman. In a fast-moving sequence of events, Altman, who was ousted by the board on Friday, has now been hired by Microsoft where he will take the lead in developing a new advanced AI research team, AFP said. There was talk Monday that OpenAI is interested in Altman returning, and that he may be open to the idea under certain conditions.