A retiring OpenAI leader who prioritized safety is voicing worries about the organization as he leaves.

Jan Leike claimed in a thread on Friday that he had “reached a breaking point” and disagreed with Open AI leadership’s “core priorities.” Leike quit this week from his position as the project leader for the company’s “super alignment” initiative.

In the field of artificial intelligence, the terms “alignment” or “super alignment” denote efforts to educate AI systems to function in accordance with human goals and objectives.

After joining Open AI in 2021, Leike was named co-leader of the Super Alignment team, which is focused on developing “scientific and technical breakthroughs to steer and control AI systems much smarter than us,” according to an announcement made by the business last summer.

But Leike remarked on Friday that the team has been “sailing against the wind” and lacking resources lately.

On X, he stated, “There were times when we were short on compute and it was becoming more difficult to complete this important research.” He also mentioned that Thursday was his last day working for the startup.

“Creating computers with more intelligence than humans is a risky effort by nature… However, in recent years, showy items have displaced safety procedures and culture.

open AI executive is out after key role in CEO Sam Altman’s ouster

Leike announced his departure on Wednesday and it coincides with a larger change in OpenAI’s leadership. Ilya Sutskever, co-founder of OpenAI and chief scientist who also assisted in leading the super alignment team, said on Tuesday that he would be leaving the firm, and this was followed by his resignation.

Sutskever declared that he would be departing to focus on a project that holds great personal significance for him. But his departure was noteworthy because he was a key player in OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s dramatic sacking and subsequent return last year, having voted to remove Altman from his positions as chairman of the board and CEO.

According to a previous article by contributor Kara Swisher, Sutskever had expressed concerns about Altman taking AI technology “too far, too fast.” However, Sutskever had a change of heart a few days after Altman was fired and signed an employee letter urging the resignation of the whole board and Altman’s return.

But in the months following Altman’s takeover of the company, concerns about how—and how quickly—to develop and make AI technology available to the public may have been a source of conflict.

The management departures follow Open AI’s announcement this week that it will provide Chat GPT, its most potent AI model to date, to the general public for free. Thanks to technology, Chat GPT will resemble a computerized personal assistant that can hold spoken discussions in real time.

“I feel that a greater portion of our resources ought to be allocated towards preparing for the upcoming models, covering security, monitoring, readiness, safety, adversarial resilience, (super)alignment, confidentiality, societal influence, and associated subjects,” Leike stated in his X post on Friday. “These are really difficult issues to solve, and I worry that we aren’t headed in the right direction.”

When asked for a response about Leike’s allegations, Open AI pointed CNN toward an X post by Altman stating the business is dedicated to safety.

“I’m very sad to see @janleike leave, and I’m super appreciative of his contributions to Open AI’s alignment research and safety culture,” Altman remarked.

“He is correct; we are dedicated to completing the remaining tasks. In the next few days, I’ll have a longer post.

Additional Open AI drama: An executive resigns due to worries about prioritizing business over security.

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