OpenAI Co-Founder John Schulman Left to Join Rival Anthropic

Schulman's departure leaves only three of OpenAI's 11 original founders still with the company: CEO Sam Altman, president Greg Brockman, and head of language models Wojciech Zaremba.

Schulman announced his decision to leave OpenAI in an August 6 X post, explaining that after almost nine years with the company, he made the "difficult decision" to depart to deepen his focus on AI alignment and return to hands-on technical work.

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Schulman expressed that he chose to join Anthropic because he believes it will provide new perspectives and opportunities to conduct research with individuals who are highly involved in the areas he is passionate about. He added:

I'm not leaving due to lack of support for alignment research at OpenAI. On the contrary, company leaders have been very committed to investing in this area. My decision is a personal one, based on how I want to focus my efforts in the next phase of my career.

Anthropic, established in 2021 by former OpenAI vice president of research Dario Amodei and his sister Daniela Amodei, who was also an OpenAI employee, has emerged as a strong competitor in AI.

Schulman's shift highlights the dynamic and competitive nature of the AI industry.

In other news, OpenAI recently launched the alpha release of "Advanced Voice Mode" for ChatGPT. This new feature enables real-time conversations with the chatbot, replicating the dynamics of human communication.