Departure of OpenAI’s Trust and Safety Lead Announced
Dave Willner, OpenAI’s head of trust and safety, announced his departure from the company in a LinkedIn post on Friday. Willner cited the strain the job has put on his family life as the reason for his decision. He also mentioned his availability for advisory work in the future.
CTO Mira Murati will lead the team directly on an interim basis, and Willner will continue to advise until the end of the year, OpenAI said in a statement.
Trust and security departments have taken a high-profile role at tech companies such as OpenAI, Twitter, Alphabet and Meta as they seek to limit the spread of hate speech, misinformation and other harmful content on their platforms.
At the same time, concern about the negative effects of artificial intelligence has increased.
Describing Willner’s work as “fundamental to delivering on our commitment to the safe and responsible use of our technology,” the company said it is seeking “technically skilled management” to replace him.
Willner took up his position at OpenAI in February 2022 after working at Airbnb and Facebook. He explained his decision to quit because of the increasing demands of his job, which affected his family life.
“Anyone with young children and a very intense job can relate to this tension, and these last few months have really shown me that I have to prioritize one or the other,” she said in the post.
“I’ve moved the children’s swimming and cycling lessons to the top of my OKRs (objectives and key results) this summer.”
Microsoft-backed OpenAI, whose AI chatbot ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer app in history earlier this year, has said its trust and security team must create “processes and capabilities to prevent the misuse of AI technologies”.
