OpenAI robotics manager resigns over Pentagon deal

A robotics manager at OpenAI said Saturday that she had resigned over the artificial intelligence giant’s deal with the US government to allow its technology’s deployment for war and domestic surveillance.

The company behind ChatGPT secured a defence contract with the Pentagon last month, hours after rival Anthropic refused to agree to unconditional military use of their technology.

OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman later posted to X saying it would be modifying a contract so its models would not be used for “domestic surveillance of US persons and nationals,” after criticism it was giving too much power to military officials without oversight.

Caitlin Kalinowski, a manager of the hardware team in the robotics division, posted on X that she cared deeply about “the Robotics team and the work we built together.”

However, “surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got.”

“This was about principle, not people,” she said.

Kalinowski wrote in a follow-up post that she took issue with the haste of OpenAI’s Pentagon deal.

“To be clear, my issue is that the announcement was rushed without the guardrails defined,” she wrote.

“It’s a governance concern first and foremost. These are too important for deals or announcements to be rushed.”

Anthropic’s refusal to authorise use of its Claude AI models had prompted backlash from US officials.

Kalinowski previously worked at Meta, developing their augmented reality glasses.