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Another one of OpenAI ’s lead safety investigator , Lilian Weng , announced on Friday she is departing the startup . Weng served as VP of research and safety since August , and before that was the head of OpenAI ’s safety systems team .
In apost on X , Weng said that “ after 7 year at OpenAI , I sense quick to reset and explore something young . ” Weng said her last day will be November 15 but did not determine where she will go next .
“ I made the super difficult decision to leave OpenAI , ” say Weng in the post . “ Looking at what we have achieved , I ’m so proud of everyone on the Safety Systems team and I have super in high spirits self-assurance that the team will keep thriving . ”
Weng ’s deviation strike out the latest in a long cosmic string of AI condom researchers , policy researcher , and other executives who have conk the company in the last year , and several haveaccused OpenAI of prioritizing commercial products over AI rubber . Weng joinsIlya SutskeverandJan Leike — the drawing card of OpenAI ’s now dissolvedSuperalignment team , which tried to develop methods to manoeuvre superintelligent AI systems — who also leave the inauguration this yr to work on on AI safety elsewhere .
Weng first joined OpenAI in 2018 , according to herLinkedIn , working on the startup ’s robotics team , which build a robot hand that could solve a Rubik ’s cube — a task that took two yr to accomplish , according to her Emily Post .
That ’s a plenty of AI safety folk , but many have raised concerns around OpenAI ’s focal point on safety machine as it judge to build progressively powerful AI systems . Miles Brundage , a longtime insurance policy investigator , bequeath the startup in Octoberand announced that OpenAI was dissolving its AGI readiness team , which he had suggest . On the same day , the New York Times profile a former OpenAI researcher , Suchir Balaji , who said he leave OpenAI because he retrieve the startup ’s technology would play more impairment than benefit to lodge .
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OpenAI say TechCrunch that executives and safe researcher are working on a transition to replace Weng .
“ We deeply appreciate Lilian ’s contributions to breakthrough safety equipment research and build rigorous proficient safeguards , ” say an OpenAI representative in an emailed command . “ We are confident the Safety Systems squad will continue playing a primal part in ensuring our systems are dependable and reliable , serving hundreds of millions of hoi polloi globally . ”
Other executives who have left OpenAI in recent months includeCTO Mira Murati , chief research officerBob McGrew , and inquiry VP Barret Zoph . In August , the prominent researcherAndrej Karpathyand co - founderJohn Schulmanalso announced they ’d be leaving the inauguration . Some of these ethnic music , include Leike and Schulman , left to link an OpenAI challenger , Anthropic , while others have go on to begin their own ventures .
