--- title: "AI Safety Researcher Quits OpenAI, Saying Its Trajectory Alarms Her" description: "Yet another OpenAI researcher has left the company amid concerns about its safety practices and readiness for human-level AI." date: "2024-12-04" modified: "2024-12-04" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-safety-researcher-quits-agi" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "agi" - "ai safety" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" --- # AI Safety Researcher Quits OpenAI, Saying Its Trajectory Alarms Her ![Yet another OpenAI researcher has left the company amid concerns about its safety practices and readiness for human-level AI.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Another One Yet another OpenAI researcher has left the company amid concerns about its safety practices and readiness for potentially human-level AI. In a [post on her personal Substack](), OpenAI safety researcher Rosie Campbell shared a message she posted on the company Slack days prior announcing her resignation. As she noted in the message, her decision was spurred by the [exit of the company's former]() artificial general intelligence (AGI) czar Miles Brundage, a close colleague whose resignation also led to [OpenAI dissolving that team]() entirely. "After almost three and a half years here, I am leaving OpenAI," Campbell's message reads. "I’ve always been strongly driven by the mission of ensuring safe and beneficial AGI, and after \[Brundage's\] departure and the dissolution of the AGI Readiness team, I believe I can pursue this more effectively externally." Though she didn't get into it too much, the former OpenAI-er said that she decided to leave because she was troubled by changes at the company over the past year or so. It's unclear what changes she's referencing exactly, but that timeframe matches the [failed coup]() against CEO and cofounder Sam Altman late last November, which was reportedly [undertaken by board members with concerns]() about the firm's lack of focus on safety under his leadership. ## Growing Pains Beyond [Altman's reinstatement]() after the ouster attempt, there have been several other [noteworthy OpenAI resignations]() over the past year as the firm [grapples with its increasing profile and worth](), not to mention its increasingly commercial focus. "While change is inevitable with growth, I’ve been unsettled by some of the shifts over the last \[roughly\] year, and the loss of so many people who shaped our culture," the researcher wrote. "I sincerely hope that what made this place so special to me can be strengthened rather than diminished." Campbell went on to add that she hopes her former colleagues remember that the firm's "mission is not simply to 'build AGI,'" but also to keep working to make sure it "[benefits humanity]()." She also wrote that she hopes her former colleagues will "take seriously the prospect that our current approach to safety might not be sufficient for the vastly more powerful systems we think could arrive this decade." It's a salient warning that's made all the more imminent by increasing concerns that AGI will fundamentally change or even harm humankind — and one, unfortunately, that's been [echoed by other people]() on their way out the door of OpenAI. **More on OpenAI:** [*It Sounds an Awful Lot Like OpenAI Is Adding Ads to ChatGPT*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()