OpenAI's head of robotics, Caitlin Kalinowski, has resigned from the company in protest at its newly disclosed contract with the Pentagon, becoming one of the most senior figures to leave over concerns about the direction of the artificial intelligence group's military ambitions.
Kalinowski's departure, confirmed across multiple outlets including Reuters, TechCrunch and Bloomberg, followed OpenAI's announcement this week that it had reached an agreement with the US Department of Defense to allow the military to use its AI technology. She made clear that her exit was not a routine career move. "This was about principle," she was quoted as saying in Business Insider.
Fortune reported that her specific concerns centred on the potential application of OpenAI's systems to surveillance and autonomous weapons, two of the most ethically contested domains in the debate over AI's role in warfare. The resignation has been described by Gizmodo as "unusually unsettling" given the seniority of the individual involved and the directness with which she connected her departure to the Pentagon deal.
The contract, which OpenAI revealed this week, opens the door for the Department of Defense to deploy its AI capabilities. The Atlantic characterised the arrangement as one that could facilitate government surveillance, while The Intercept reported that OpenAI's position on surveillance and autonomous killings has amounted to an appeal for public trust rather than a set of hard constraints.
Sam Altman, OpenAI's chief executive, has sought to frame the company's approach as deferential to elected officials rather than self-governing on such sensitive questions. The Wall Street Journal reported that Altman wants elected officials, not OpenAI itself, to determine how the military uses AI, a posture that critics may regard as an abdication of responsibility by one of the most influential companies in the field.
Kalinowski's exit adds to a pattern of high-profile departures from OpenAI linked to questions of ethics and corporate direction. Politico noted that she joins a list of top researchers who have left the company citing concerns about its strategic choices. Separately, Fortune reported that OpenAI's VP of Research, Max Schwarzer, has joined rival AI laboratory Anthropic.
The resignations come at a delicate moment for OpenAI as it navigates its transition from a non-profit research organisation to a more commercially and now militarily oriented enterprise. The company's willingness to work with the Pentagon places it in contrast with a tradition of caution among some AI researchers about the risks of deploying powerful general-purpose AI systems in lethal or coercive contexts.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for further comment beyond the disclosures already reported by news organisations covering the story.
