--- title: "Another OpenAI Researcher Quits, Issuing Cryptic Warning" description: "Another OpenAI researcher left the company this week, ominously citing concerns over AI industry opaqueness and a lack of accountability." date: "2024-05-24" modified: "2024-05-24" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-cryptic-warning" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "ai" - "ai safety" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" --- # Another OpenAI Researcher Quits, Issuing Cryptic Warning ![Another OpenAI researcher left the company this week, ominously citing concerns over AI industry opaqueness and a lack of accountability.]() *\Image: Jason Redmond / AFP via Getty / Futurism\* ## Another One Another OpenAI researcher left the company this week, ominously citing concerns over opaque "decision-making processes" in the AI industry. In a [thread posted this week to X-formerly-Twitter](), former OpenAI policy researcher Gretchen Kreuger announced her departure, writing that this "was not an easy decision to make." And while the ex-OpenAIer didn't quite go into detail — [can't imagine why not]()! — about the forces that made her make that difficult choice, she did offer a cryptic warning about the lack of oversight within the AI industry and why it matters. "We need to do more to improve foundational things," Kreuger [wrote](), "like decision-making processes; accountability; transparency; documentation; policy enforcement; the care with which we use our own technology; and mitigations for impacts on inequality, rights, and the environment." "These concerns are important to people and communities now," the researcher continued. "They influence how aspects of the future can be charted, and by whom." In other words, the decisions made by big AI industry players impact everyone. Right now, though, those who lead AI companies are pretty much the only ones making those choices. https://twitter.com/GretchenMarina/status/1793403478158836140 ## Falling Apart Kreuger's departure comes at a turbulent moment for OpenAI. In addition to multiple recent scandals — one involving OpenAI [allegedly copying]() actress Scarlett Johansson's voice without her permission for one of its new products, and another regarding the company's previously unknown practice of pressuring exiting employees into signing strict non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements by way of threatening to claw back vested equity, [as reported by *Vox*]() — the company has seen several high-profile departures in recent weeks. Those departures include that of [Ilya Sutskever](), who served as OpenAI's chief scientist, and [Jan Leike](), a top researcher on the company's now-[dismantled]() "Superalignment" safety team — which, in short, was the division effectively in charge of ensuring that a still-theoretical human-level AI wouldn't go rogue and kill us all. Or something like that. Sutskever was also a leader within the Superalignment division. And to that end, it feels very notable that all three of these now-ex-OpenAI workers were those who worked on safety and policy initiatives. It's almost as if, for some reason, they felt as though they were [unable to successfully do their job]() in ensuring the safety and security of OpenAI's products — part of which, of course, would reasonably include creating pathways for holding leadership accountable for their choices. "One of the ways tech companies in general can disempower those seeking to hold them accountable is to sow division among those raising concerns or challenging their power," Kreuger's thread [continued](). "I care deeply about preventing this." **More on OpenAI:** [*OpenAI Researcher Quits, Flames Company for Axing Team Working to Prevent Superintelligent AI from Turning Against Humankind*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()