John Schulman Leaving OpenAI for Rival AI Startup Anthropic

John Schulman, co-leader of OpenAI’s post-training team and company co-founder, is joining artificial intelligence startup Anthropic. Per a post on X, Schulman announced plans to leave OpenAI and “start a new chapter.”

“This choice stems from my desire to deepen my focus on AI alignment, and to start a new chapter of my career where I can return to hands-on technical work,” wrote Schulman. “I’ve decided to pursue this goal at Anthropic, where I believe I can gain new perspectives and do research alongside people deeply engaged with the topics I’m most interested in.”

I shared the following note with my OpenAI colleagues today:

I've made the difficult decision to leave OpenAI. This choice stems from my desire to deepen my focus on AI alignment, and to start a new chapter of my career where I can return to hands-on technical work. I've decided…

— John Schulman (@johnschulman2) August 6, 2024

Financially backed by Amazon, per CRN, Anthropic was created in 2021 by former OpenAI members Daniela and Dario Amodei. Anthropic claims its AI model, Claude, performs better than OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Google’s Gemini.

Earlier this year, OpenAI broke up the superalignment team, a group focused on the problems faced once AI systems can go beyond human capability. Team leaders Jan Leike and Ilya Sutskever left OpenAI shortly thereafter. While Sutskever went on to help launch a new AI venture, Safe Superintelligence Inc., Leike left to join Anthropic.

“Very excited to be working together again!” wrote Leike in response to Schulman’s post.

According to Schulman, his departure is not because of a lack of research support. Instead, his “decision is a personal one.” He intends to refocus and move to the next career phase.

After Schulman’s announcement, OpenAI issued a statement thanking the co-founder for his contributions. A spokesperson noted Schulman’s “passion and hard work” gave OpenAI a solid base to continue its efforts to advance AI technology. OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO Sam Altman also wrote a post on X to thank Schulman and acknowledge his contributions to the company.

Thank you for everything you've done for OpenAI! You are a brilliant researcher, a deep thinker about product and society, and mostly, you are a great friend to all of us. We will miss you tremendously and make you proud of this place.

(I first met John in a cafe in Berkeley in…

— Sam Altman (@sama) August 6, 2024

Last month, OpenAI insiders filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission, claiming the company restricted employees from talking about the potential dangers of AI technology. The complaint noted employees could be punished for talking to federal regulators and that these fearful conditions would limit the safety and transparency of AI technology developments.

Schulman began with Open AI in 2016 after receiving a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer sciences. He had a significant role in the creation of OpenAI’s innovative chatbot ChatGPT. Anthropic is only the second company Schulman has ever worked for.

Schulman is also not the only OpenAI co-founder to take a step back. President Greg Brockman announced on Monday that he is taking a sabbatical for the rest of the year to recharge.