Kevin Weil and Bill Peebles are leaving OpenAI

In short: Kevin Weil and Bill Peebles announced they are leaving OpenAI as the company pulls back from smaller public projects and focuses more on business customers.

What happened

Kevin Weil, who led OpenAI’s science research initiative, and Bill Peebles, a researcher behind OpenAI’s AI video app Sora, said they are departing the company.

Their exits come after OpenAI moved to cut back on what it has called “side quests,” meaning projects that are not central to its main business plans. TechCrunch reported that these included Sora and OpenAI for Science.

Sora, the company’s AI video tool, was shut down last month. TechCrunch previously reported it was costing OpenAI an estimated $1 million per day in “compute” costs, which is the cost of running the powerful computers needed to make AI systems work (like paying a very large electricity and server bill).

OpenAI for Science, the internal group behind a product called Prism, is also being reorganized. Weil said the unit he headed will be absorbed into other research teams. His departure came a day after the team released GPT-Rosalind, a model aimed at helping with life sciences research and drug discovery.

Peebles said in a social media post that research projects like Sora need room away from the company’s main roadmap, which is its core product plan.

Why it matters

For everyday users, this suggests OpenAI may put less attention on attention grabbing consumer apps like video creators and more attention on tools for companies. That can change what kinds of products get built, improved, or shut down next.

Source: TechCrunch AI