OpenAI undergoes major changes as co-founders John Schulman and Greg Brockman step down in the midst of legal turmoil with Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the company.
Elon Musk filed a lawsuit on Aug. 5, alleging OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Brockman misled him into forming the organization for non-profit purposes and later deviated from its original mission. This legal battle comes shortly after Musk withdrew a similar lawsuit less than two months prior.
Shortly after Musk’s filing, OpenAI sees a significant leadership shake-up, prompting further scrutiny of the company.
Reasons for Departure
Brockman, who held the role of President at OpenAI, announced he would be taking an extended sabbatical until the end of the year to recharge after nine years with the organization. He emphasized the ongoing mission to develop safe artificial general intelligence (AGI).
In contrast, Schulman stated that he was leaving to join rival AI company Anthropic in order to focus on AI alignment, ensuring AI systems are beneficial and non-harmful to humans. He also expressed a desire to engage in more hands-on technical work, stating:
“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.”
With Schulman’s departure, OpenAI now has only two active co-founders: CEO Altman, Brockman, and Wojciech Zaremba, who oversees language and code generation.
Schulman’s exit has brought attention back to OpenAI’s AI safety practices, with critics arguing that product development has overshadowed safety concerns. This critique follows the disbandment of OpenAI’s superalignment team dedicated to controlling advanced AI systems.
US lawmakers recently urged Altman for clarity on OpenAI’s commitment to allocating 20% of its computing resources to AI safety research.
In response, Altman reaffirmed the firm’s dedication to dedicating at least 20% of resources to safety efforts and expressed excitement about collaborating with the US AI Safety Institute.
