OpenAI, the developer of the popular AI assistant ChatGPT, has seen a significant exodus of its artificial general intelligence safety researchers, according to a former employee.that Daniel Kokotajlo, a former OpenAI governance researcher, recently revealed that nearly half of the company’s staff focused on the long-term risks of superpowerful AI have left in the past several months.
The changing culture at OpenAI became more apparent to Kokotajlo before the boardroom drama in November 2022, when CEO Sam Altman was briefly fired and then rehired, and three board members focused on AGI safety were removed. Kokotajlo felt that this incident sealed the deal, with no turning back, and that Altman and president Greg Brockman had been consolidating power since then.