Trouble in OpenAI? Co-founder John Schulman leaves for Anthropic, Greg Brockman on sabbatical

John Schulman, a founding member of OpenAI, has left the company to join rival AI startup Anthropic. Schulman, who played a pivotal role in the development of OpenAI’s AI alignment research and the reinforcement training of models like ChatGPT, announced his decision to transition to Anthropic via a post on X.

He expressed a desire to deepen his focus on AI alignment and engage in more hands-on technical work. Schulman believes that Anthropic will offer new perspectives and opportunities to pursue his research interests alongside like-minded experts.

In addition to Schulman’s departure, OpenAI has confirmed that president and co-founder Greg Brockman is taking an extended leave until the end of the year. Brockman, who has been with the company for nine years, plans to use this time to relax and recharge.

More from Tech

How ChatGPT is becoming everyone’s BFF and why that’s dangerous America ready for self-driving cars, but it has a legal problem

This news follows the earlier exit of Peter Deng, a product manager who joined OpenAI last year after leading product teams at Meta, Uber, and Airtable. Deng’s departure had already been reported by The Information.

A spokesperson for OpenAI expressed gratitude for Schulman’s contributions, highlighting his role in advancing alignment research and establishing a foundation for future innovations. Despite Schulman’s departure, the spokesperson conveyed confidence that OpenAI’s alignment research efforts would continue to thrive.

Schulman’s involvement with OpenAI began after he completed his Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley.

His work at OpenAI was instrumental in the creation of ChatGPT, where he led the reinforcement training organization. Following the departure of Jan Leike, another AI safety researcher who also joined Anthropic, Schulman took over as head of OpenAI’s alignment science efforts and was a member of the newly formed safety committee.

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

America ready for self-driving cars, but it has a legal problem

Alibaba, Baidu begin using own AI chips as China shifts away from US tech amid Nvidia row

Despite ongoing controversies surrounding OpenAI’s approach to AI safety research, Schulman emphasized that his decision to leave was not due to a lack of support from the company. Instead, he framed it as a personal choice driven by his desire to focus his efforts on new research challenges at Anthropic.

With the exit of Schulman and Brockman, only three of the people from OpenAI’s original founding team: Sam Altman who is still the CEO, and Wojciech Zaremba, who leads language and code generation. Because he is on probation, Brockman is technically still a part of the organisation.

Altman expressed his gratitude and admiration for Schulman’s contributions, describing him as a brilliant researcher, a deep thinker about product and society, and a great friend to the team.

As OpenAI continues to navigate these significant changes, the company’s leadership and remaining founders face the challenge of maintaining momentum and ensuring the continuity of their ambitious AI research and development efforts.