OpenAI co-founder joins arch rival Anthropic to build AI ‘responsibly’
Durk Kingma, one of the co-founders of OpenAI, has made a significant move by joining Anthropic, a major rival of the ChatGPT creator. Durk Kingma, who played a role in setting up OpenAI in 2015 alongside Elon Musk and current CEO Sam Altman, expressed his commitment to developing “powerful AI systems responsibly” through his new position at Anthropic.
This transition comes shortly after OpenAI made a significant shift in its business structure to become a for-profit company, leading to several key figures leaving the organisation. Kingma mentioned that Anthropic’s approach to AI development aligns with his personal beliefs, stating his excitement to work with the talented team at Anthropic and tackle upcoming challenges. Kingma’s expertise in generative AI models, which contributed to the development of OpenAI’s Dall-E image generator and ChatGPT chatbot, will undoubtedly be valuable in his new role, although his specific responsibilities at Anthropic have not been disclosed.
John Schulman, another OpenAI co-founder, recently made a similar move to Anthropic, focusing on the ethical and safe advancement of AI. His decision to leave OpenAI was based on the desire to deepen his focus on AI alignment and engage more directly in technical work. These departures from OpenAI mark a turning point for the organisation, as former co-founders like Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever have also parted ways with the company this year.
Despite these changes, OpenAI’s current chief executive Sam Altman and computer scientist Wojciech Zaremba remain as the only original co-founders still actively involved in the company. The transition of OpenAI to a for-profit entity has not been without controversy, with criticism from former founders such as Elon Musk, who labelled the move as “illegal”.
The evolving landscape of AI development and the movement of key industry figures like Kingma and Schulman between major organisations like OpenAI and Anthropic highlight the dynamic nature of the technology sector. As these talented individuals continue to shape the future of AI, their decisions and contributions will undoubtedly have a lasting impact on the development and deployment of artificial intelligence technologies.