(Aug 6): Greg Brockman, the president of OpenAI and a central figure at the company, is going on extended leave to “relax and recharge,” according to a company spokesperson. At the same time, researcher John Schulman, is leaving for rival artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.

Both men were co-founders of the company, and their departures mean a dwindling number of OpenAI’s original team remain.

Brockman is taking time off after working at the company for nine years, the spokesperson said. In a statement, the company said OpenAI is “grateful” for Schulman’s work, including on its alignment research.

“His passion and hard work have established a strong foundation that will inspire and support future innovations at OpenAI and the broader field,” the spokesperson said.

Schulman, who was research scientist at the company focused on training its AI models, said in a post on X on Monday that he would focus on safety at Anthropic, but that he wasn’t leaving because of concerns over that issue. “To be clear, I’m not leaving due to lack of support for alignment research at OpenAI,” he said, referring to the alignment of AI with humans’ interests. “On the contrary, company leaders have been very committed to investing in this area.”

Schulman has been hailed as the architect of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s popular chatbot. But said he gets “too much credit” for the tool, and cited the work of the larger team there.

The researcher is the latest departure from the company in the last year, after OpenAI fired and then dramatically rehired chief executive officer Sam Altman. At Anthropic, Schulman will join former OpenAI researcher Jan Leike, who also left OpenAI to work on AI safety.

Uploaded by Magessan Varatharaja