John Schulman, a co-founder of OpenAI, has left the company to join rival AI startup Anthropic.
OpenAI president Greg Brockman is also taking an extended leave until the end of the year.
Brockman, who has been with OpenAI for nine years, is taking this time to "relax and recharge."
John Schulman, a co-founder of OpenAI, has left the company to join rival AI startup Anthropic. This move is part of a significant shake-up at OpenAI, as president Greg Brockman is also taking an extended leave until the end of the year. Brockman, who has been with OpenAI for nine years, is taking this time to “relax and recharge.”
“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,” Brockman wrote on his X post.
Also read: OpenAI testing text watermarking for ChatGPT: What it means for users
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
Schulman also shared his decision on X, explaining his desire to focus more on AI alignment — ensuring AI behaves as intended — and to engage in more hands-on technical work. “I’ve decided to pursue this goal at Anthropic, where I believe I can gain new perspectives and do research alongside people deeply engaged with the topics I’m most interested in,” Schulman said. “I am confident that OpenAI and the teams I was part of will continue to thrive without me.”
I shared the following note with my OpenAI colleagues today:
— John Schulman (@johnschulman2) August 6, 2024
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…
Schulman’s journey with OpenAI began shortly after he completed his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, according to TechCrunch. He played a crucial role in developing the AI-powered chatbot platform ChatGPT by leading OpenAI’s reinforcement training team, which fine-tunes AI models to follow human instructions. After the departure of AI safety researcher Jan Leike, Schulman headed OpenAI’s alignment science efforts and was a member of the safety committee.
Also read: ChatGPT-maker OpenAI may lose $5 billion this year, run out of cash in 12 months
Despite ongoing controversies around OpenAI’s approach to AI safety research, Schulman emphasised that his decision was personal and not due to a lack of support from the company. “Company leaders have been very committed to investment in [alignment research],” he said.
With Schulman’s exit, only three of OpenAI’s 11 original founders remain: CEO Sam Altman, Brockman, and Wojciech Zaremba, who leads language and code generation.
“Thank you for everything you’ve done for OpenAI!” Altman wrote on X. “You are a brilliant researcher, a deep thinker about product and society, and mostly, you are a great friend to all of us. We will miss you tremendously and make you proud of this place.”
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Ayushi Jain
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