OpenAI robotics leader resigns over concerns about surveillance and autonomous weapons amid Pentagon contract
Caitlin Kalinowski, who had been leading hardware and robotic engineering teams at OpenAI since November 2024, announced she has left the company.
“I resigned from OpenAI,” she posted on X and LinkedIn. “I care deeply about the Robotics team and the work we built together. This wasn’t an easy call. AI has an important role in national security. But surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got. This was about principle, not people. I have deep respect for Sam and the team, and I’m proud of what we built together.”
Her departure comes amid an escalating dispute over how far AI companies should go in supporting U.S. military uses of the technology. In recent days, negotiations between the Pentagon and Anthropic collapsed after the company pushed for strict limits on domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons. Soon after, OpenAI reached its own agreement with the Defense Department to deploy its models on a classified government network.
The move drew criticism from some employees and observers who argued that OpenAI appeared to step in after Anthropic refused the terms. CEO Sam Altman later acknowledged the deal’s rollout looked “opportunistic,” and the company has since moved to clarify restrictions on how its systems can be used by the military.
An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the departure and provided a statement: “We believe our agreement with the Pentagon creates a workable path for responsible national security uses of AI while making clear our red lines: no domestic surveillance and no autonomous weapons. We recognize that people have strong views about these issues and we will continue to engage in discussion with employees, government, civil society and communities around the world.”
Before OpenAI hired Kalinowski, she served as a hardware executive at Meta for nearly two and a half years leading the company’s creation of Orion, previously codenamed Project Nazare, which it billed as “the most advanced pair of AR glasses ever made.” Meta unveiled its prototype glasses in September.
Before leading the Orion project, she worked for more than nine years on virtual reality headsets at Meta-owned Oculus, and before that, nearly six years at Apple helping to design MacBooks, including Pro and Air models.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com