From Sora’s creator to the CMO, OpenAI’s exodus keeps growing
OpenAI has seen a wave of high-profile departures this year, from its head of safety systems to the creator of its Sora video app and its chief marketing officer.
OpenAI’s list of high-profile exits keeps growing. The latest is Johannes Heidecke, the company’s head of safety systems, who has told staff he is leaving immediately after an internal reorganisation merged OpenAI’s safety and research divisions, according to a report by Wired.
His departure follows that of Joshua Achiam, OpenAI’s Chief Futurist, who left after nine years of safety research, and Fidji Simo, CEO of AGI Deployment, who is stepping down following an extended medical leave. Co-founder Greg Brockman will take over her responsibilities, including product teams and OpenAI’s global go-to-market strategy.
The exits go well beyond the safety division. In April, a wave of leaders across video, science and marketing departed as OpenAI reportedly reels in costs ahead of a highly anticipated IPO, per CNBC. Bill Peebles, the mastermind behind Sora, exited after OpenAI abruptly shuttered the short-form video app to conserve computing resources. Kevin Weil, Vice President of Science, left as the company dismantled and decentralised its dedicated science division. Srinivas Narayanan, Chief Technology Officer of B2B Applications, announced his departure on X. Kate Rouch, Chief Marketing Officer, stepped down to focus on her recovery from cancer.
Even so, OpenAI has managed to attract top talent during the churn, including Google’s Noam Shazeer, a co-lead of Gemini AI, who joined in June, and Austrian programmer Peter Steinberger, creator of OpenClaw, who joined to build the company’s next generation of AI personal agents.
Image: Wikimedia Commons/by Loic Le Meur
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