Shulman, co-founder of OpenAI, is leaving the company to pursue a new path at AI company Anthropic.

John Shulman, one of the co-founders of OpenAI, will join the company’s main competitor: Anthropic. According to a post on He would have found this path at Anthropic, where he will focus on technical work and conduct alignment research. He is one of the last senior profiles to leave the AI ​​company.

Ilya Sutskever, former co-founder and chief scientist of OpenAI, had previously left the company. In addition, Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, announced in a post on X that he is taking a break but will return afterward.

Farewell to OpenAI

John Shulman was one of the co-founders of OpenAI and was at the beginning of its great success about nine years ago. He is one of the main architects of the ChatGPT chatbot. Today he shared a post on X explaining that he has made the difficult decision to leave OpenAI. Shulman will start a new chapter at Anthropic, one of OpenAI’s main competitors.

With this new step in his career, he wants to focus on technical work again. More specifically, he wants to delve deeper into research to ensure that AI systems align with human values. And that would be possible at Anthropic. Furthermore, he emphasizes in his message that his departure has nothing to do with a lack of support or alignment research at OpenAI.

Chain reaction

Shulman’s departure comes shortly after Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and former chief scientist, left OpenAI. Since then, she has started her own AI company with a focus on security, without commercial pressure. Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, also announced that he would take a sabbatical until the end of this year, but would then return to “fulfill the mission,” he wrote in a post on X.