{
  "video_id": "reddit_1w1ttwr",
  "channel_slug": "singularity",
  "channel_handle": "r/singularity",
  "title": "What's going on at OpenAI? A lot of senior leaders have left recently",
  "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1w1ttwr/whats_going_on_at_openai_a_lot_of_senior_leaders/",
  "external_url": null,
  "upload_date": "20260829",
  "published_at": "2026-08-29T18:19:56+00:00",
  "transcript": "COO — **Brad Lightcap** (out August)\n\nCRO — **Denise Dresser** (out August, <1 yr in role)\n\nHead of Data Centers — **Chris Malone** (out August)\n\nHead of Robotics/Hardware — **Caitlin Kalinowski** (out March)\n\nHead of Ethics — **Chloé Bakalar** (out July)\n\nHead of Safety Systems — **Johannes Heidecke** (out July)\n\nChief Futurist — **Joshua Achiam** (out July)\n\nAI Safety team lead — **Sandhini Agarwal** (out July)\n\nI just read on X that **Dylan Scandinario**, Head of Preparedness, has also left. But I haven't found any confirmation yet\n\nThere are supposedly a few more, since some articles mention \"13 executives,\" but I only found the names of these ones.\n\n\n\n--- Top Comments ---\n\n\n[94 upvotes] I think people underestimate the allure of \"I'm worth $20M+ now, why should I keep working?\" Or at the very least \"I'm worth $20M+ now, why should I keep working on anything that I am not 100% absolutely passionate about, or for better hours/life balance/work environment, etc?\"\n\nSure, there are people who are fervently passionate about OpenAI and the mission. But I'm also sure that OpenAI has plenty of people working for them who are just normal folks who happened to be in the right place at the right time and with the right education/background. Once they have enough money to be financially independent even at a very inflated lifestyle, then they evaluate all of the opportunities in front of them; whether that's the opportunity to retire, or the opportunity to go be the CEO of their own thing, etc.\n\n[25 upvotes] Ppl reaaaally like to stay on for the IPO. There's considerable pressure and incentives internally to keep everyone onboard and things stable too. Legit suspicious.\n\nGonna guess the DoD type stunts hurt moral a ton and Sams unable to keep ppl believing they're the good guys. From my experience in tech, really amazing ppl aren't trying to put their productive years toward untrustworthy ppl with questionable and flexible morals. It's also why Elon won't get talent anymore.\n\nHelps that there's plenty of alternatives to make money and ipo, but man it sucks to have to leave a few months before IPO and they're gonna shit on you super hard on the way out. The internal celebrations are like a once in a career experience and legendary. Should be easy to hang on\n\n[17 upvotes] interesting pattern there, a lot of safety related roles, I would leave too if everyone was racing and our models were showing major misalignment. they expect a shit show to happen soon and don't want to be around for it because no one is willing to actually do things the right way.\n\n[14 upvotes] OpenAI's top leadership team is a revolving door when it comes to job retention. only possible reason is Sam and Greg. \n\nIf you've read the rumors and reports from journalists like Ronan Farrow, you can clearly see that Sam and Greg have this twisted power dynamic where they get off on misleading and poorly treating their peers. IIRC Greg goes ballistic quite often and Sam has a track record of pitting his employees against one another. \n\nIt's certain that there's something ugly about to happen in openai, be it company overvaluation, improper finances, AI safety concerns, or the lack of direction in a cutthroat competitive landscape that makes insiders realize they're in a sinking ship. Their tight-lipped NDA is certainly what's keeping everyone from revealing what the core issue is.\n\nMy bet is that Sam and Greg are probably going to let the company crash and burn after the IPO, right after they've cashed out and they can continue their venture capital ambitions - see how Sam's always investing in random start ups andGreg has been dreaming of being a billionaire since his involvement in OpenAI.",
  "transcript_chars": 3712,
  "ingested_at": "2026-08-30T01:30:15.618724+00:00",
  "source": "reddit",
  "yt_meta": {
    "score": 66,
    "upvote_ratio": 0.84,
    "num_comments": 62,
    "author": "Ok_Display_3159",
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