Two key OpenAI personnel are leaving the company, while another one is taking a months-long leave of absence. As reported by The Information, OpenAI president Greg Brockman is taking a sabbatical, while his fellow co-founder John Schulman is bidding the company farewell and joining its rival Anthropic. Peter Deng, its VP for consumer product who joined last year, is leaving OpenAI, as well. Deng used to lead product developments at Meta and Uber.
In a post on X/Twitter, Brockman said his leave of absence will last through end of year and that it’s his “first time to relax” since the founding of OpenAI nine years ago. He also reportedly assured staff members that he’s coming back after his vacation. Brockman temporarily left OpenAI last year when the company’s board ousted its CEO, Sam Altman. They were both reinstated just a few days later, whereas the board was disbanded and replaced.
I’m taking a sabbatical through end of year. First time to relax since co-founding OpenAI 9 years ago. The mission is far from complete; we still have a safe AGI to build.
— Greg Brockman (@gdb) August 6, 2024
John Schulman also posted the note he sent to OpenAI staff on X, where he said that his departure stems from his “desire to deepen [his] focus on AI alignment” and to “return to hands-on technical work.” He clarified that he wasn’t leaving OpenAI due to lack of support for alignment research and that the company’s executives have apparently been “very committed to investing in this area.” At OpenAI, Schulman helped lead the post-training team that refined its large language models. After the company disbanded the “Superalignment” team that was in charge of steering powerful AI models that could pose a threat to humanity in the future, OpenAI said Schulman would be in charge of any future safety efforts.
I shared the following note with my OpenAI colleagues today:
I’ve made the difficult decision to leave OpenAI. This choice stems from my desire to deepen my focus on AI alignment, and to start a new chapter of my career where I can return to hands-on technical work. I’ve decided…
— John Schulman (@johnschulman2) August 6, 2024
These departures follow several major previous changes in OpenAI’s rank of leaders. Before the Superalignment team was disbanded, Jan Leike, one of its heads, wrote on X that “safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products” within the company over the past years. Company co-founder and Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever also left in May. He was involved in Altman’s dismissal as a board member, though he later said that he regretted his participation in the board’s actions. While he remained Chief Scientist after the event, he reportedly never truly returned to his duties. The Information also notes that OpenAI recently hired its first CFO and chief product officer, which may have had an effect on Deng’s role within the company.
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