A top hardware executive at OpenAI has resigned over the company’s recent agreement with the US Department of Defense, citing concerns that the deal was announced without proper safeguards in place.
Caitlin Kalinowski, who led OpenAI’s robotics and consumer hardware team, announced her departure on Saturday in a series of social media posts. She joined the company in 2024 after previously leading augmented reality hardware development at Meta.
“AI has an important role in national security,” Kalinowski wrote on X. “But surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got.”
She emphasised that her decision was “about principle, not people” and expressed “deep respect” for CEO Sam Altman and the team. In a follow-up post, she clarified that her issue was with the process: “The announcement was rushed without the guardrails defined. It’s a governance concern first and foremost. These are too important for deals or announcements to be rushed.”
OpenAI confirmed Kalinowski’s departure to TechCrunch. In a statement, the company said: “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.” The company acknowledged that “people have strong views about these issues” and said it would continue discussions with employees, government, and civil society.
The agreement between OpenAI and the Pentagon was announced just over a week ago, following collapsed talks between the Pentagon and rival AI firm Anthropic, which had sought safeguards against mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. The Pentagon subsequently designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk.
