Renowned research scientist Andrej Karpathy has announced his departure from OpenAI for the second time, sparking speculation in the tech community. Karpathy, a key figure in the field of artificial intelligence, clarified that his decision to leave was not prompted by any specific incident or disagreement.
Having been a founding member of OpenAI, Karpathy initially left the organisation in 2017 to join Tesla, where he led the autopilot team. However, in 2022, he made a return to OpenAI. During his time with the company, Karpathy garnered a significant following on social media platforms and YouTube, where he shared insights into AI and its workings.
In a statement addressing his departure, Karpathy emphasised his positive experiences at OpenAI, highlighting the strength of the team and the excitement surrounding future projects. He expressed his intention to focus on personal endeavours in the immediate future.
“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 :)),” Karpathy said.
“Actually, being at OpenAI over the last ~year has been really great — the team is really strong, the people are wonderful, and the roadmap is very exciting, and I think we all have a lot to look forward to. My immediate plan is to work on my personal 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.”
Previously, Karpathy had hinted at his involvement in projects related to AI assistants, referring to his work as "building kind of a J.A.R.V.I.S at @OpenAI." This reference, drawn from popular culture, underscored his vision for creating helpful and conversational AI systems.