OpenAI's executive exodus deepens in safety and ethics ahead of its IPO

Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s chief operating officer, said on Aug. 11 he is leaving to “start something new,” the latest senior departure as the company heads toward an expected public offering. Lightcap spent eight years at OpenAI, four of them as COO.

The exits cluster in safety, ethics and operations — the functions that draw the most scrutiny as OpenAI, which filed a confidential S-1 in June, moves toward the public markets. Chloé Bakalar, its head of ethics and only dedicated ethicist, left last month after less than a year and has not been replaced, according to reporting on the departures.

Two safety leaders are also gone. Johannes Heidecke, head of the Safety Systems team, left in July during a reorganization that pulled safety and research teams closer together. Joshua Achiam, the chief futurist and former head of mission alignment, departed in July after nearly nine years.

Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s co-founder and president, is reportedly stepping more directly into day-to-day leadership as the company rebuilds its executive bench. The departures follow OpenAI’s Aug. 13 hire of Dali Rajic as chief revenue officer, a sign the rebuild is tilting toward revenue as much as governance.

OpenAI has not given reasons for the exits, and no single explanation ties them together; several appear to be individual moves. Still, losing its lone ethicist and two safety leaders in weeks leaves thinner oversight at the moment IPO disclosure raises the stakes.

Whether OpenAI fills the ethics role and names a new safety systems lead before it prices its offering will show how much the reshuffle is cleanup versus retreat.