OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman has taken an extended leave of absence, while two other leaders have also permanently left the organization, according to a new report.
Brockman is reportedly on leave through the end of the year, the Information reported on Monday, and another one of OpenAI's co-founders, John Schulman, has jumped to rival startup Anthropic.
OpenAI's vice president of consumer products, Peter Deng, has also left, according to the Information, though it's unclear whether he has already landed somewhere else.
Deng joined OpenAI a little over a year ago, according to his LinkedIn.
The leadership changes are the latest in a string of shakeups at OpenAI.
OpenAI dismantled its superalignment and "preparedness" teams this year in favor of redistributing its trust and safety work across the organization. As part of that shift, the company reassigned Aleksander Mądry, who led its preparedness team, to a "bigger role."
In May, co-founder Ilya Sutskever and senior researcher Jan Leike resigned. They had been leading the company's superalignment team. Sutskever subsequently announced his own rival AI research startup, Safe Superintelligence Inc.
On Monday, Elon Musk sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, again, after dropping a similar lawsuit earlier this year.
Musk originally sued OpenAI, Altman and Brockman in late February on grounds that the defendants allegedly set "aflame" the company's original nonprofit mission.
Musk subsequently offered to withdraw the lawsuit in exchange for OpenAI changing its name to ClosedAI, a reference to the company's decision to stop releasing its code as open source because of what it perceived of as the risks to society of doing so. Musk voluntarily withdrew the complaint by mid-June.
“Altman assured Musk that the nonprofit structure guaranteed neutrality and a focus on safety and openness for the benefit of humanity, not shareholder value,” the new complaint says, according to the WSJ. “But as it turns out, this was all hot-air philanthropy — the hook for Altman’s long con.” In response to the first suit, Altman and OpenAi vehemently rejected Musk's claims, citing messages that showed Musk seeking control of OpenAI.
