OpenAI co-founder John Shulman leaves company to join Anthropic



It has been revealed that John Shulman, who co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman and Ilya Satskever, is leaving OpenAI to join Anthropic, an AI startup launched by former OpenAI employees. OpenAI has seen a series of departures from its executives, including former chief scientist Ilya Satskever and Jan Reich .

OpenAI co-founder Schulman leaves for Anthropic, Brockman takes extended leave | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/05/openai-co-founder-leaves-for-anthropic/

OpenAI Co-Founder John Schulman Departs for AI Rival Anthropic - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-06/openai-co-founder-john-schulman-departs-for-ai-rival-anthropic

Schulman posted the following message to X (formerly Twitter):

'I have made the difficult decision to leave OpenAI. This choice stems from my desire to begin a new career with a deeper focus on AI alignment and to return to hands-on technical work. I believe that Anthropic will give me new perspectives and allow me to work with people who are deeply engaged in the topics that interest me most. To be clear, I am not leaving because there is a lack of support for alignment research at OpenAI. On the contrary, OpenAI leadership is very committed to investing in this field. My decision is personal.'


'I joined OpenAI almost nine years ago as part of the founding team out of grad school. It was the first and only company I've ever worked for outside of an internship, and it's been a lot of fun. I'm grateful to Sam and Greg for initially hiring me, and to Mira and Bob for believing in me, bringing me great opportunities, and helping me navigate challenges. I'm proud of what we've all accomplished together at OpenAI - building a rare, unprecedented company with a public-good mission. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be a part of history, and I'm rooting for you all, even if you end up working elsewhere.'




OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to the post with a message saying, 'Thank you for all you've done for OpenAI.'




Speaking of OpenAI's alignment, it is known that there was once a Super Alignment team that researched the safety and control of artificial general intelligence (AGI), but this team was dissolved when executives Ilya Satskivar and Jan Reich retired. Regarding this, Reich expressed his dissatisfaction, saying, 'The culture and process of safety has been defeated by the trend to create flashy products and has reached its limits.'

OpenAI's 'Super Alignment' team, which was researching the control and safety of superintelligence, has been disbanded, with a former executive saying 'flashy products are being prioritized over safety' - GIGAZINE



After leaving OpenAI, Satskivar founded the Safe Superintelligence research institute, which focuses on AI safety. Reich later moved to Anthropic and became a member of the newly established Super Alignment team. Meanwhile, OpenAI established a new 'Safety and Security Committee' with CEO Altman as a member, and showed its intention to research 'AI safety and security' in a broad sense, including alignment. Shulman was the scientific director of this 'Safety and Security Committee.'

On the same day that Schulman announced his departure, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman also announced that he would be taking a leave of absence through the end of the year.




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