OpenAI just lost co-founders John Schulman and Greg Brockman
OpenAI co-founders John Schulman and Greg Brockman have announced their exit from the artificial intelligence startup, signaling a major shift in the company's leadership. Brockman, who holds the position of president at OpenAI, will be on leave until year-end. Schulman is set to join Anthropic, a rival AI firm. As per The Information, OpenAI's vice president of consumer product Peter Deng has also left the company.
Schulman's contributions to OpenAI recognized
Schulman, known for his work as a research scientist at OpenAI, played a significant role in developing ChatGPT, the company's popular chatbot. In a post on X, he wrote, "I joined OpenAI almost 9 years ago as part of the founding team after grad school." "It's the first and only company where I've ever worked, other than an internship. It's also been quite a lot of fun."
Take a look at Schulman's post
Schulman's departure not driven by safety concerns
Despite his move to Anthropic, Schulman clarified that his decision was not influenced by safety issues at OpenAI. He stated, "To be clear, I'm not leaving due to lack of support for alignment research at OpenAI. On the contrary, company leaders have been very committed to investing in this area." "My decision is a personal one, based on how I want to focus my efforts in the next phase of my career."
Brockman's leave follows support for Altman
Brockman's decision to take extended leave comes after he stood by CEO Sam Altman during a brief ousting last year. Known within the company as "GDB," Brockman had resigned in protest when Altman was fired. He revealed that his leave would provide him with his first opportunity to relax since OpenAI's founding. In May this year, Jan Leike, co-leader of OpenAI's superalignment group, along with Ilya Sutskever, the firm's chief scientist, announced their resignation.
New depatures come as Musk files fresh lawsuit against OpenAI
The departure of Schulman and Brockman's leave announcement comes a day after Elon Musk reignited his legal dispute with OpenAI, a company he helped establish. The new lawsuit, filed on Monday, alleges that Altman and Brockman "assiduously manipulated Musk into co-founding their spurious non-profit venture." It further claims the assurances about OpenAI's safer, more transparent, and non-profit structure were part of Altman's long-term deceptive strategy.
