OpenAI’s Lightcap To Take On Expanded Role

OpenAI said its chief operating officer Brad Lightcap would take on expanded responsibilities, overseeing day-to-day operations and international expansion, as the company seeks to consolidate its lead in the artificial intelligence race.

Lightcap will also oversee corporate partnerships, OpenAI said.

“We remain focused on the same core — pursuing frontier AI research that accelerates human progress — but we now also deliver products used by hundreds of millions of people,” the company said in a statement.

Executive promotions

Mark Chen is to become chief research officer, while Julia Villagra becomes chief people officer, OpenAI said.

The changes are designed to allow chief executive Sam Altman to focus on research and product efforts, as well as overseeing the company.

OpenAI said it has no plans to replace Mira Murati as chief technology officer, after she left the company in September to found start-up Thinking Machines Lab.

The appointments follow a number of top executive departures at OpenAI amidst the company’s controversial plans to shift from a non-profit to a for-profit model.

Former chief research officer Bob McGrew, Murati and vice president of post training Barret Zoph all departed last September.

Fundraising

OpenAI completed a $6.6 billion (£5.1bn) funding round last October and is in the process of raising another $40bn.

The company, backed by Microsoft, is in constant need of massive computing power to develop and deploy new AI models, and that computing power necessitates huge capital investments.

OpenAI is part of the Stargate project, also backed by SoftBank and Oracle, which is planning to invest up to $500bn in US AI infrastructure over the next four years.