OpenAI co-founder John Schulman has left Anthropic after less than a year

Less than a year into his tenure at the company, OpenAI co-founder John Schulman is leaving Anthropic. The startup confirmed Schulman’s departure after The Information, Reuters and other publications reported on the exit.

"We are sad to see John go but fully support his decision to pursue new opportunities and wish him all the very best,” said Jared Kaplan, Anthropic's chief science officer, in a statement the company shared with Engadget. Schulman left OpenAI last August alongside Peter Deng, the company’s former vice-president of consumer product. Schulman is considered one of the original architects of ChatGPT.

Following his departure from OpenAI, Schulman said he was joining Anthropic to focus on AI alignment — the process of making machine learning models safe to use — and a desire to return “to more hands-on technical work.” Schulman hasn’t publicly said why he decided to leave Anthropic, nor what he plans to do next. His X profile still says he “recently joined” Anthropic.