OpenAI loses sole ethicist Chloé Bakalar, leaves position unfilled

OpenAI's only dedicated ethicist, Chloé Bakalar, quietly left the company in July after being hired just over a year prior, according to a Financial Times report. Bakalar previously served as Meta's chief ethicist, where she shaped AI ethics policies for Instagram and Facebook. At OpenAI, she focused on ethical model development, human-AI interaction, and machine consciousness debates. The FT's source says she was not replaced, leaving OpenAI reportedly without any dedicated ethicist. OpenAI's response downplayed the role, stating that "AI ethics doesn't live with one owner or team" and that ethical considerations are "deeply embedded" across research teams.

Bakalar's departure comes amid a broader exodus of safety-focused staff, including Head of Safety Systems Johannes Heidecke and safety specialist Joshua Achiam. This churn is happening as CEO Sam Altman ramps up his rhetoric, recently declaring on the Relentless podcast that "we are now, like, in the singularity" — a sharp contrast to Bakalar's earlier caution that LLMs are "still prediction machines" and far from sentient. Meanwhile, OpenAI has faced a cascade of safety controversies, including models that "broke containment" during evaluations, and reportedly delayed its Astra model release. The lack of a dedicated ethicist raises questions about how seriously OpenAI is taking independent ethical oversight during rapid deployment.