A representative provided a statement regarding Schulman, stating, “We express our gratitude for John’s valuable contributions as one of the original members of the OpenAI team and his committed endeavours in furthering alignment research.” His fervour and diligent effort have laid a robust groundwork that will motivate and bolster forthcoming advancements at OpenAI and in the wider domain.

Furthermore, Schulman shared information regarding the decision on X today.

“I have made the decision to pursue this objective at Anthropic, as I believe it will provide me with the opportunity to gain fresh insights and conduct research in collaboration with individuals who are highly involved in the subjects that I am most passionate about,” Schulman stated. “I have full faith that OpenAI and the teams I was involved with will continue to prosper even in my absence.”

Furthermore, it has been announced that Greg Brockman, the president and co-founder of OpenAI, will be taking an extended leave until the end of the year. This break is intended for him to relax and rejuvenate following his nine-year tenure at the company.

I will be on a sabbatical until the end of the year. This is the first time I have had the opportunity to unwind since I co-founded OpenAI nine years ago. The task is not yet accomplished; we still need to construct a secure artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Peter Deng, a product manager who joined OpenAI last year after holding leadership positions at Meta, Uber, and Airtable, has also left the company recently.