To be clear, I'm not leaving due to lack of support for alignment research at OpenAI. On the contrary, company leaders have been very committed to investing in this area. My decision is a personal one, based on how I want to focus my efforts in the next phase of my career.
...so then why couldn't he do that at OpenAI?
EDIT: The Information reporting that 3 leaders are leaving including Schulman, which raises further questions.
I think because he wants to "return to hands-on technical work", but that was difficult at OpenAI. As I understand, he is now managing alignment research at OpenAI. He is clarifying he can continue to do that, but he would like to do alignment research rather than managing one.
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...so then why couldn't he do that at OpenAI?
EDIT: The Information reporting that 3 leaders are leaving including Schulman, which raises further questions.
Because he doesn't want to deal with sama
I think because he wants to "return to hands-on technical work", but that was difficult at OpenAI. As I understand, he is now managing alignment research at OpenAI. He is clarifying he can continue to do that, but he would like to do alignment research rather than managing one.
That's not a plausible explanation. sama knows how good Schulman is, of course he'd be glad to let him not manage anyone and continue his work.