Today, the widely respected research scientist, Andrej Karpathy, announced his departure from OpenAI for the second time. He clarified that his decision was not due to any specific event, issue, or drama. Initially a founding member of OpenAI, Karpathy left the company in 2017 to join Tesla.
After leading Tesla’s autopilot team, he returned to OpenAI almost a year ago. Andrej Karpathy, known for his significant social media and YouTube presence, shares thought-provoking writings on the evolving AI space and creates videos explaining the inner workings of AI.
Karpathy confirmed his departure, stating, “Hi everyone yes, I left OpenAI yesterday. First of all, nothing ‘happened,’ and it’s not a result of any particular event, issue, or drama (but please keep the conspiracy theories coming as they are highly entertaining :)).
Being at OpenAI over the last ~year has been great – the team is really strong, the people are wonderful, and the roadmap is very exciting, I think we all have a lot to look forward to.
My immediate plan is to work on my projects and see what happens. Those of you who’ve followed me for a while may have a sense of what that might look like.”
The news of Karpathy’s departure, initially reported by The Information, comes after a tumultuous year at OpenAI, marked by the brief ousting and reinstatement of CEO Sam Altman. OpenAI mentioned the transfer of Karpathy’s responsibilities to another researcher without disclosing the name.
A statement from OpenAI’s spokesperson said, “Andrej is departing to pursue personal projects. We are deeply grateful for his contributions and wish him the best. His responsibilities have transitioned to a senior researcher who worked closely alongside Andrej.”
Karpathy’s X bio, now updated, originally mentioned “building kind of a J.A.R.V.I.S at OpenAI,” hinting at his involvement in an AI assistant project.
Earlier this year, he explained the rationale behind the term J.A.R.V.I.S, expressing his desire to capture a helpful and conversational AI.
He stated, “I name JARVIS in general terms only, as one of my favorite popular portrayals of an AI – a helpful, conversational, empowering e/ia automation. An aid against evil and entropy.”
