Caitlin Kalinowski Resigns from OpenAI Over Pentagon Deal Concerns
WASHINGTON: Caitlin Kalinowski, who was in charge of hardware at OpenAI, announced her resignation on Saturday. She expressed worries about the company’s recent agreement with the Department of Defense. In a post on social media platform X, Kalinowski mentioned that OpenAI rushed into deploying its AI models on the Pentagon’s classified cloud networks without adequate consideration.
Kalinski stated, “AI has an important role in national security. But there are concerns about surveillance of Americans without proper legal oversight, and allowing autonomous weapons to operate without human control. These issues should have been discussed more thoroughly.”
While Reuters was unable to contact Kalinowski directly for further comments, she emphasized her respect for OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, and the entire team. However, she noted that the Pentagon agreement was announced without establishing necessary safeguards. “This is primarily a governance issue,” she added, insisting that such significant decisions shouldn’t be made hastily.
The day after the agreement was announced, OpenAI assured that it had implemented additional precautions to govern the use of its technology. On Saturday, the company reiterated that it has strict “red lines” in place to prevent the misuse of its technology for domestic surveillance or the development of autonomous weapons.
