Context: Caitlin Kalinowski has resigned from her position as head of the robotics division at OpenAI due to disagreement over the company’s agreement with the US Department of Defense. The deal allows the government to use OpenAI’s technology for military and surveillance purposes, which she opposes.
Fact Check: The article discusses Caitlin Kalinowski’s resignation from OpenAI and her concerns about the company’s agreement with the US government regarding the use of AI technology for military and surveillance objectives.
“Caitlin Kalinowski is at the helm of OpenAI’s robotics division, the company behind ChatGPT. She disputes the conditions under which the company reached an agreement with the US Department of Defense, allowing them to use their technology for military and domestic surveillance purposes.
The General Manager of the robotics division at OpenAI announced her resignation on Saturday, March 7th, citing the agreement between the AI giant and the US government that permits the technology’s military and domestic surveillance use.
“The AI plays a significant role in national security. However, the surveillance of Americans without judicial control and autonomous decisions without human authorization are issues that deserved more reflection than they received,” Caitlin Kalinowski wrote to explain her decision.
The company behind ChatGPT secured a contract with the Pentagon in February, shortly after its competitor, Anthropic, refused to concede to the government’s ultimatum demanding unrestricted use of its AI assistant, Claude, by the US military. This incident had sparked outrage from Donald Trump.
Manque de garde-fous
OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, later announced a series of modifications to the agreement, including a clause stating that OpenAI’s AI systems should not be intentionally used for surveilling American citizens, as he wrote.
“This is a matter of principle, not people,” Caitlin Kalinowski further explained concerning her resignation, adding that she has a lot of respect for Sam Altman and the team.
“To be clear, my issue is that the announcement was made hastily without defining the safeguards,” she elaborated in a subsequent message. “It’s primarily a governance issue. These questions are too important for agreements or announcements to be rushed.” Previously, Ms. Kalinowski worked at Meta, where she developed augmented reality glasses.”
