Popular AI startup, OpenAI announced on Thursday afternoon that retired Gen. Paul Nakasone, a former chief of the National Security Agency, will join the board of directors.
In a media release, the company said that Nakasone would also be a member of the subcommittee on “security and safety” of the board.
Former President Donald Trump nominated Nakasone to head the NSA, and he did so from 2018 until February of this year.
Before Nakasone departed from the National Security Agency, he authored an opinion piece endorsing the extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the monitoring scheme that Congress ultimately approved in April.
“Mr. Nakasone’s insights will also contribute to OpenAI’s efforts to better understand how AI can be used to strengthen cybersecurity by quickly detecting and responding to cybersecurity threats,” OpenAI said in the post.
Newsng understands that his initial responsibilities will include joining the Board’s Safety and Security Committee, where he’ll make “critical safety and security decisions for all OpenAI projects and operations,” according to the post.
Co-founder and former head scientist Ilya Sutskever departed OpenAI recently because of differences in safety and development, among other notable departures. Jan Leike, the team leader in charge of superalignment—the group responsible for making sure AI doesn’t endanger humanity—followed swiftly.
With competition arising quickly in the developing generative artificial intelligence market and as its big language models gain prominence across the tech sector, OpenAI is strengthening its board and C-suite.
Since launching ChatGPT in late 2022, the firm has been experiencing rapid expansion, but OpenAI has also been marred by scandal and the resignation of high-ranking employees.
We earlier reported that Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, confirmed that a new AI feature for its highly sought-after iPhones was developed in partnership with OpenAI.
