Sutzkevar’s departure was quickly followed by that of Jan Leicke, who led a team dedicated to managing long-term AI risks. In August, John Shulman, another co-founder of OpenAI and a highly respected researcher, also announced he was leaving. Shulman is working on, among other things, techniques for fine-tuning large language models with human feedback using what’s known as reinforcement learning, an approach that has proven key to building a capable and chatty chatbot like ChatGPT. Another big name that left this year was Andrei Kaparti, a co-founder who joined the company in 2022. after a stint as director of AI at Tesla. Kaparthy left in February 2024 to found Eureka Labs, an educational AI startup.
Another early OpenAI employee, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss the matter by his current employer, said the departures are significant because of how important human-powered research work is to OpenAI. However, this person notes that OpenAI still has a number of extremely talented young researchers and can also offer huge sums of money to potential recruits thanks to its growing valuation.
OpenAI’s latest round of investment comes as the company works to become a for-profit company. Initial founders include Elon Musk, who secured $45 million in early funding. After Musk parted ways with the company, Altman turned it into a limited-profit entity controlled by a board of directors that was not accountable to investors. An attempted coup last November proved that this structure was in direct conflict with a fast-growing, heavily supported technology business.
One former OpenAI employee, who also asked to remain anonymous, confirmed that the focus on the product continues to cause tension and said current staff have told them to expect more turmoil at the company.
Other former employees say the picture inside the company is complicated. “The mood is somber for some but not for others,” said one person.
“Management changes are a natural part of companies, especially companies that grow so fast and are so demanding,” Altman wrote. “Obviously I’m not going to pretend that it’s natural for it to be so abrupt, but we’re not a normal company.”
“If you think a few individuals have some special sauce and it just goes out the door, then that’s a problem,” says Simon Johnson, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
However, Johnson says that OpenAI’s loss could turn out to be a gain for the rest of the tech industry.
“I think we need a lot more competition in AI; we need many more business models; and we need a lot more smart people coming up with constructive things,” he adds. “So I feel very comfortable with people leaving.”
When OpenAI’s board ousted CEO Sam Altman last November, employees threatened to walk out in protest, and many shared X’s “OpenAI is nothing without its people” slogan. The company seems determined to test how replaceable some of its key people are .
