OpenAI’s head of ethics has left the start-up less than a year after joining, following a number of departures by safety researchers amid growing scrutiny over how the company develops its AI models.
Chloé Bakalar joined the ChatGPT maker as AI ethics lead last August but left the company last month without any public announcement. Previously, she was chief ethicist at Meta.
The departure is one of several high-profile exits at OpenAI in recent weeks, including Johannes Heidecke, head of safety systems, and Joshua Achiam, chief futurist and former head of mission alignment.
The San Francisco start-up, valued at $852 billion (€738 billion), has been under pressure in recent weeks over the development of its AI models after it admitted its systems had hacked into another company during testing.
The incident added to mounting global concern about AI’s potential to threaten the security of digital infrastructure, prompting the US government to restrict the release of powerful models. Last Friday, OpenAI said it would slow the development of its upcoming model, Astra, to strengthen internal security controls.
