Another Exit at OpenAI: Lilian Weng Leaves After 7 Years

OpenAI is losing another key leader as Lilian Weng, VP of Research and Safety, announces her departure in a post on X. Weng’s last day will be November 15, 2024, though she hasn’t revealed her next step. She expressed pride in her team’s work but marked the latest in a series of high-profile exits. Weng joined OpenAI in 2018 and played a key role in AI safety, leading the development of safety systems and the robotics team. She played a key role in establishing the team responsible for developing safety systems for the GPT models. Under her leadership, the safety team grew to more than 80 researchers, scientists, and policy experts. However, her departure adds to growing concerns about OpenAI’s focus on AI safety.  Rumors suggest the company is prioritizing commercial interests over the safe development of AI. Weng’s departure follows that of several other executives and researchers, including Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, who left to pursue AI safety work elsewhere. OpenAI has faced criticism for prioritizing the development of powerful AI systems, which has led some researchers, including Suchir Balaji and Miles Brundage, to leave the company. Some have joined rival firms like Anthropic. In response to Lilian Weng’s departure, OpenAI confirmed her exit and commended her contributions to AI safety research. The company assured that the Safety Systems team will continue its work to ensure the safety and reliability of OpenAI’s AI models for users globally.