John Schulman, one of the co-founders of the prominent artificial intelligence company OpenAI, has departed to join the rival firm Anthropic. Schulman announced his decision on the social media platform X late Monday, stating,
“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.”
In the same vein, OpenAI’s President and fellow co-founder, Greg Brockman, revealed that he would be taking a sabbatical until the end of the year. Brockman shared this update in his own post on X late Monday.
The Information was the first to report on these significant developments, noting that Peter Deng, a product manager who joined OpenAI last year, has also left the company.
OpenAI has not yet responded to Reuters‘ request for comments on these departures. These exits occur amidst a period of considerable personnel changes at OpenAI. The company’s AI safety leader, Aleksander Madry, was reassigned to a different role in July.
Additionally, another co-founder and chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, exited the company in May. Andrej Karpathy, also among OpenAI’s founding members, left the company in February and went on to launch an AI-integrated education platform in July.
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Adding to the turbulence, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI and departed three years later, has revived his lawsuit against the company and its CEO Sam Altman. Musk alleges that OpenAI has prioritized profits and commercial interests over the public good.
These changes come at a critical time for OpenAI, which has been at the forefront of AI development with its groundbreaking products, including ChatGPT. The departures of key figures such as Schulman, Sutskever, and Karpathy raise questions about the future direction and stability of the company.
Meanwhile, Schulman’s move to Anthropic signals a competitive shift in the AI landscape, as he seeks to pursue his passion for AI alignment and more technical, hands-on work.
The realignment of roles and the emergence of new ventures by former OpenAI leaders highlight the dynamic and rapidly evolving nature of the AI industry.
As OpenAI navigates these transitions, the broader AI community will be closely watching how these changes impact the company’s innovation trajectory and its commitment to balancing technological advancement with ethical considerations.