- OpenAI has lost several key leaders since last year’s effort to push out CEO Sam Altman.
- Lilian Weng, vice president of research and safety, was the latest the leave.
- Here are some of the other high-profile OpenAI leaders who have left the company.
OpenAI has lost a lot of top talent over the last year.
The latest example came on Friday when Lilian Weng, vice president of research and safety, announced that she would be leaving the company after seven years.
Her announcement follows a shake-up at the company in September, when Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, along with top executives Bob McGrew and Barret Zoph, announced that they were leaving OpenAI.
Altman said in a memo announcing McGrew’s and Zoph’s departures that “leadership changes are a natural part of companies, especially companies that grow so quickly and are so demanding.”
He added: “I obviously won’t pretend it’s natural for this one to be so abrupt, but we are not a normal company.”
Like many companies, OpenAI has seen turnover among its highest ranks since its founding in 2015. Cofounder Elon Musk left the company’s board in 2018, for example.
But since an attempt to oust Altman as OpenAI’s CEO last November, the company has lost multiple executives and key leaders.
Altman’s attempted ouster involved some members of OpenAI’s board as well as top company employees. Former board members Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley, who left the board after the failed ouster, said that Altman had created “a toxic culture of lying.”
Toner and McCauley have also pointed to a broader divide in OpenAI: Some employees, including many who have quit since November, have called for more independent oversight of companies developing AI technologies. Others believe companies like OpenAI can regulate themselves.
The departures have even become numerous enough to prompt memes on social media.
Here are the key leaders who have left OpenAI since last November’s standoff.
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