OpenAI’s leadership shakeup continues with the departure of Jan Leike, who tweeted on Tuesday night that he had resigned.
Leike co-led OpenAi’s superalignment group, a team that focuses on making its artificial intelligence systems align with human interests.
In September, he was named one of Time 100’s most influential people in AI.
Leike announced his departure hours after Ilya Sutskever, the other superalignment leader, said he was exiting.
Sutskever, who cofounded OpenAI and was its chief scientist, said he is leaving after almost a decade, he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Sutskever added he was “excited” about his next steps, which he said he would share more details about “in due time.”
Leike’s short post — “I resigned” — is sure to fuel speculation about his and Sutskever’s next moves.
In a post on X, OpenAI cofounder Sam Altman said, “Ilya and OpenAI are going to part ways. This is very sad to me; Ilya is easily one of the greatest minds of our generation, a guiding light of our field, and a dear friend. His brilliance and vision are well known; his warmth and compassion are less well known but no less important.”
Altman did not immediately address Leike’s departure.
The news comes on the tail of several high-profile OpenAI departures. Two executives, Diane Yoon and Chris Clark, quit weeks ago, The Information reported. Yoon was the VP of people, and Clark was head of nonprofit and strategic initiatives. OpenAI also parted ways with researchers Leopold Aschenbrenner and Pavel Izmailov, according to another report by The Information last month. They both have worked on the superalignment team.
BI reported last week that two employees who worked on safety and governance resigned in recent months. Daniel Kokotajlo left last month and William Saunders departed OpenAI in February.
OpenAI and Leike did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, sent outside standard working hours.
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