Carnegie Mellon professor Zico Kolter joins OpenAI’s Board of Directors

OpenAI has recently expanded its Board of Directors by welcoming Zico Kolter, a professor and director of the machine learning department at Carnegie Mellon University. Kolter’s primary research focus is on AI safety, a key area of concern for OpenAI. In a blog post, OpenAI described Kolter as an “invaluable technical director for its governance.”

The issue of AI safety has become increasingly significant at OpenAI, especially in light of the recent departures of several key executives and employees, including co-founder Ilya Sutskever, who has been deeply involved in safety efforts. These exits included members of the “Superalignment” team, which had been working on governing “superintelligent” AI systems but reportedly faced challenges in accessing the necessary computing resources.

Kolter will also serve on OpenAI’s Safety and Security Committee, joining Directors Bret Taylor, Adam D’Angelo, Paul Nakasone, Nicole Seligman, CEO Sam Altman, and OpenAI technical experts. This committee is tasked with making recommendations on safety and security across all OpenAI projects. However, as previously noted in a May article, the committee’s composition has raised some concerns due to its predominance of insiders.

Kolter, who previously served as chief data scientist at C3.AI, earned his PhD in computer science from Stanford University in 2010 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT from 2010 to 2012. His research includes exploring ways to bypass existing AI safeguards using automated optimisation techniques. In addition to his academic and research roles, Kolter is actively involved in industry, serving as a “chief expert” at Bosch and the chief technical advisor at the AI startup Grey Swan.