OpenAI’s AI ethics lead exits after less than a year

Chloé Bakalar, OpenAI’s head of ethics, has left the company less than a year after joining as the ChatGPT maker faces growing scrutiny over AI safety and the development of its models.

Before OpenAI, Bakalar was Meta’s Chief Ethicist for Responsible AI, where she focused on ethical considerations in AI and generative AI products.

OpenAI has undergone a series of high-profile departures this year, with exits affecting both its executive ranks and AI research teams. Fidji Simo, CEO of AGI Deployment, announced her departure from her full-time role last month, while Kevin Weil, the company’s former chief product officer and later VP of Science, departed in April.

Other senior figures who have exited or changed roles include Brad Lightcap, who moved out of the COO position; Bill Peebles, former head of Sora; Srinivas Narayanan, former CTO of B2B/Enterprise Applications; and Kate Rouch, former marketing chief.

The company has also lost researchers such as Andrea Vallone, who moved to Anthropic, former VP of Research Jerry Tuorek, hardware lead Caitlin Kalinowski, and researcher Zoë Hitzig.