OpenAI Hardware Executive Caitlin Kalinowski Resigns Following Deal with Pentagon

JAKARTA - OpenAI hardware executive Caitlin Kalinowski announced her resignation after the company signed a controversial deal with the United States Department of Defense or Pentagon.

In a social media post, Kalinowski said the decision was taken due to concerns about the use of artificial intelligence technology in the field of national security without adequate oversight.

"This is not an easy decision," Kalinowski said. "AI has an important role in national security. However, surveillance of American citizens without judicial oversight and the use of lethal autonomous systems without human authorization are limits that should be considered more mature."

Kalinowski previously led Meta's augmented reality glasses development team before joining OpenAI in November 2024 to lead the company's hardware team.

In his statement, he emphasized that his decision to resign was not aimed at individuals within the company.

"This decision is about principle, not people," he said. "I have great respect for CEO Sam Altman and the OpenAI team."

In a follow-up post on the X platform, Kalinowski explained that his objections were mainly related to the announcement process of the cooperation, which was considered too hasty.

"My problem is that the announcement was made too quickly without a clear safety framework. This is first and foremost a governance problem. Things like this are too important to be announced in a hurry," he wrote.

An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed Kalinowski's resignation to TechCrunch. In its statement, the company said that cooperation with the Pentagon was designed to ensure the responsible use of AI in the context of national security.

"We believe the agreement with the Pentagon creates a viable path for responsible use of AI in national security, while still asserting our boundaries: no domestic surveillance and no autonomous weapons," the company said.

The deal between OpenAI and the Pentagon was announced more than a week ago. This announcement comes after talks between the Pentagon and the AI company Anthropic failed to reach an agreement.

Anthropic previously tried to negotiate a number of protections so that its technology would not be used for domestic mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. After the negotiations failed, the Pentagon even designated Anthropic as a risk in the supply chain.

Anthropic said it would challenge the designation in court. Meanwhile, major technology companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon said they would continue to provide Anthropic's Claude AI model to non-defense customers.

Shortly after talks with Anthropic fell through, OpenAI announced its own deal with the Pentagon that would allow the company's technology to be used in a classified government environment.

The company explained that their approach uses a layered security system, not only through contracts but also technical protections to ensure that the limits of AI use are still being adhered to.

However, the controversy seems to have impacted the company's reputation among users. Recent data shows that the number of ChatGPT app deletions has jumped by 295 percent, while the Claude app has climbed to the top of the free app rankings on Apple's App Store in the US.

As of Saturday afternoon local time, Claude was in first place and ChatGPT was in second place in the list of the most popular free apps on the US App Store.