Sam Altman might be one of the last original founders…

Sam Altman might be one of the last original founders remaining at OpenAI as another departs to focus on AI alignment at a rival firm

Satya Nadella and Sam Altman at OpenAI Dev Day.

What you need to know

OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman announced that he'll be on sabbatical leave through the end of the year to "relax."
Researcher John Schulman also announced his departure from the AI firm to join Anthropic to focus on AI alignment.
The drastic changes at the firm take shape as concerned parties mount more pressure on its safety processes.

"OpenAI is nothing without its people," was a statement echoed in unison by the ChatGPT maker's staffer across social media during Sam Altman's firing. However, the startup has lost its safety and super alignment team over the past few months. Jan Leike, former head of super alignment at OpenAI, indicated that he's constantly bumped heads with the firm's management over its decision-making, citing a prioritization of shiny products over safety.

As it happens, the OpenAI is now more disintegrated than ever. According to a report by The Information, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman is going on sabbatical leave through the end of the year while researcher John Schulman is leaving to join OpenAI competitor, Anthropic.

I’m taking a sabbatical through end of year. First time to relax since co-founding OpenAI 9 years ago. The mission is far from complete; we still have a safe AGI to build.August 6, 2024

Schulman announced his departure from OpenAI on Monday on X (formerly Twitter) to focus on AI alignment at Anthropic. He indicated the move wasn't triggered by a "lack of support for alignment research at OpenAI." The researcher says "Company leaders have been very committed to investing in this area."

I shared the following note with my OpenAI colleagues today:I've made the difficult decision to leave OpenAI. This choice stems from my desire to deepen my focus on AI alignment, and to start a new chapter of my career where I can return to hands-on technical work. I've decided…August 6, 2024

The ChatGPT maker's face has changed since its early days, with most of its founding members unceremoniously leaving the company. Former OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever left the company to focus on a "personally meaningful" project. Sutskever later launched an OpenAI rival firm focused on 'building safe superintelligence.'

With Brockman and Schulman seemingly joining the fray, CEO Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and lead of language and code generation Wojciech Zaremba are the remaining members of OpenAI's original founding team.

Is the pressure catching up to key OpenAI players?

Hands grasping the planet Earth in a pixel art style with OpenAI logo (Image credit: Microsoft Designer)

OpenAI has been under fire for the past few months. From claims of prioritizing shiny products like AGI while safety processes took a back seat to prematurely shipping GPT-4o.

More recently, billionaire Elon Musk filed a new suit against Sam Altman and OpenAI for stark betrayal of its founding mission and involvement in racketeering. Musk had filed a similar suit against the parties, but abruptly withdrew it without prejudice. Musk claims OpenAI leveraged a "fake humanitarian mission" to get investors to fund its advances.

The suit further claims Altman and Brockman "manipulated" Musk into co-founding the company with promises of a "safer, more open course than profit-driven tech giants." Musks believes OpenAI's latest AI models constitute AGI, but the ChatGPT maker is delaying the announcement for financial gain.