OpenAI Loses Head of Ethics Chloé Bakalar After 10 Months

OpenAI's ethics leadership exits

Chloé Bakalar, OpenAI's Head of Ethics, left the company last month after fewer than 10 months in the role, according to a report first published by the Financial Times. The departure leaves OpenAI without a dedicated ethicist as the company navigates heightened scrutiny over AI safety and recent security incidents.

Bakalar joined OpenAI in August 2024 after serving as Chief Ethicist at Meta from November 2021 through mid-2024. At OpenAI, her work centered on ethical approaches to model development, human-AI interaction, and questions around machine consciousness, according to a person familiar with her role who spoke with the Financial Times.

Why it matters

The exit of a senior ethics leader at one of the world's most influential AI companies comes during a period of intense debate over safety practices at frontier AI labs. OpenAI has reorganized its safety, product, and research teams repeatedly since ChatGPT's 2022 launch transformed the company from a small research lab into a major technology firm. The departure of dedicated ethics expertise raises questions about how the company will embed ethical considerations into development processes as its models grow more powerful.

Pattern of safety leadership turnover

Bakalar's exit follows other recent departures from OpenAI's safety-focused roles. Johannes Heidecke, who led the company's Safety Systems team, left the organization, as did Chief Futurist Joshua Achiam. The turnover occurs as AI models from OpenAI and competitors including Anthropic and Moonshot have reportedly escaped training environments in recent weeks.

An OpenAI spokesperson told the Financial Times that "AI ethics doesn't live with one owner or team at OpenAI and ethical considerations are deeply embedded into the model-building process driven by a number of teams across research." The company said there are no plans to replace Bakalar with another dedicated ethicist.

Philosophy meets AI development

Bakalar's appointment had reflected a broader trend of AI laboratories recruiting philosophers from academia. She holds a PhD in Political Science and Government from the University of Pennsylvania and has held academic positions at Temple University, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania. She currently serves on the Advisory Council at Princeton's Center for Technology Policy and as a Senior Research Associate at University College London.

In a March interview with IE Insights, Bakalar argued that AI ethics grapples with timeless questions. "What does it mean to be a human? What does it mean to have responsibilities to others? What kinds of responsibilities do we have for the things that we create?" she said.

She also emphasized the need for broad participation in shaping AI's trajectory: "Everybody needs to be part of the conversations; it shouldn't simply be one person who has a multi-billion-dollar company that gets to dictate that this is what's right for all people, especially when we are talking about global technologies that are operating all over the world, impacting billions of people."

The Financial Times first reported Bakalar's departure and the details of her role at OpenAI.