Andrej Karpathy, a notable figure in the artificial intelligence community and one of the original members of OpenAI, has announced his departure from the organization. In a message shared on the social media platform X, Karpathy revealed that he left the Microsoft-supported AI lab on Monday. This move marks a significant change for OpenAI, which is renowned for its pursuit of advanced AI technologies.

Karpathy’s decision to step away from OpenAI comes after his return to the company for a second stint last year, following a period at Tesla where he was deeply involved in developing AI and driver assistance technologies. Before his tenure at Tesla, where he served as a senior director for AI, Karpathy was an early member of OpenAI, joining shortly after his academic pursuits under Fei-Fei Li, a prominent AI scientist at Stanford.

In recent discussions, Karpathy has been vocal about the potential of large language models to serve as a new kind of computer operating system, showcasing his ongoing interest and thought leadership in the AI space. His departure from OpenAI doesn’t mark an end to his contributions to artificial intelligence but rather a pivot to focusing on personal projects, as he indicated in his social media post.

Karpathy’s move to step back and explore personal ventures underscores the dynamic and rapidly evolving nature of the AI field, where researchers often move between academia, industry, and independent projects to further innovation and exploration.