Lilian Weng, one of the top safety researchers at OpenAI, announced on Friday that she will be leaving the company. Weng has been with OpenAI for seven years, serving as the Vice President of Research and Safety since August and previously leading the team focused on safety systems.
In a message she shared on X (formerly known as Twitter), Weng explained that after seven years at OpenAI, she feels it’s time for a change and to explore new opportunities. She mentioned that her last day at the company will be November 15th but did not reveal where she plans to go next.
Weng described her decision to leave as very difficult. She expressed pride in the accomplishments of her team and confidence that they will continue to succeed in their work.
Her departure is part of a larger trend, as many researchers and executives focused on AI safety have left OpenAI in the past year. Some of these individuals have voiced concerns that OpenAI is placing more importance on developing commercial products rather than prioritizing safety in AI development. Weng is joining other notable figures who have left the company this year, including Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, who were leading a team dedicated to ensuring that advanced AI systems are safe.
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Weng joined OpenAI in 2018, initially working on robotics, where her team developed a robotic hand capable of solving a Rubik’s Cube—a project that took two years to complete. As OpenAI shifted its focus toward the development of AI models like GPT, Weng adapted her work to contribute to the applied AI research team in 2021. After the launch of GPT-4, she was given the responsibility of creating a dedicated team to build safety systems for AI in 2023. Today, her safety systems team consists of over 80 experts, including scientists and policy researchers.
Despite the size of the safety team, there have been ongoing concerns about OpenAI’s commitment to safety as it develops more powerful AI systems. For instance, Miles Brundage, another policy researcher who recently left the company, noted that OpenAI was disbanding its team focused on preparing for artificial general intelligence (AGI). Additionally, a former researcher named Suchir Balaji left OpenAI due to fears that the technology being developed could do more harm than good for society.
In response to Weng’s departure, an OpenAI spokesperson acknowledged her contributions and stated that the company is working to ensure a smooth transition for her role. They expressed confidence that the Safety Systems team will continue to play a crucial role in maintaining the safety and reliability of OpenAI’s products, which serve millions of users around the world.
Weng is not the only executive to leave OpenAI recently. Other notable departures include Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew, and Research Vice President Barret Zoph. In August, well-known researcher Andrej Karpathy and co-founder John Schulman also announced their exits. Some of these former employees, including Leike and Schulman, have joined a competing AI company called Anthropic, while others are pursuing their own projects.
