Leadership Changes at OpenAI: Four Key Managers Depart

Leadership Changes at OpenAI: Four Key Managers Depart

In the last month, OpenAI has seen the departure of four notable managers:

— Chloe Buckalar, who was responsible for AI ethics. She worked at the startup for just a year but was the only full-time ethics specialist in the company, holding a relatively high position. It is unclear if she will be replaced.

— Brad Lightcap, COO. This is likely the biggest loss on the list. He has been with OpenAI since 2018, initially as CFO, then as COO, and additionally took on the role of overseeing global strategy and product releases. Essentially, he built the entire sales machine of the startup, and under his leadership, the commercial division grew from about 50 employees to over 700. Brad stated that he is leaving to "create something new."

— Johannes Heidecke, head of Safety Systems. He was the successor to Lilian Wang.

— Josh Achiem, who previously led the Mission Alignment team, which was disbanded. After that, he worked as a sort of consultant and has now announced his departure.

Earlier, Fidji Simo, who worked on AGI development, also left. Overall, the company is systematically losing those individuals responsible for safety, alignment, ethics, and similar areas, especially at a time when systems capable of autonomously hacking entire infrastructures are being built.