Larry Summers resigns from OpenAI board amid rising scrutiny over Jeffrey Epstein emails

Larry Summers has resigned from the board of artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI amid rising scrutiny over his alleged friendship with convicted child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein. This was confirmed by Summers' office and OpenAI on 19 November, as per an AP report.

He has been under scrutiny after emails indicated he remained friends with Epstein long after the financier pled guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl in 2008.

AP in another report said that American think-tank, the Center for American Progress (CAP) on 18 November confirmed that Summers was “ending his fellowship at CAP.” A spokesperson for the Budget Lab at Yale also told AP that Summers is no longer a member of the organization's advisory group.

What did OpenAI and Larry Summers say about resignation?

“Larry has decided to resign from the OpenAI Board of Directors, and we respect his decision. We appreciate his many contributions and the perspective he brought to the Board,” the board said in a statement.

A statement was also issued by Summers' spokesperson, Kelly Friendly a day earlier, which said: “In line with my announcement to step away from my public commitments, I have also decided to resign from the board of OpenAI. I am grateful for the opportunity to have served, excited about the potential of the company, and look forward to following their progress.”

According to a Bloomberg report, Summers statement also said that he was “deeply ashamed” of continuing to communicate with Epstein.

Who is Larry Summers?

Summers is a former United States Treasury Secretary (from 1999 to 2001 under President Clinton), the former president of Harvard University (from 2001 to 2006), a former paid contributor to Bloomberg TV, and he is also a professor and a director at Harvard's Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government.

He joined the OpenAI board in November 2023 during the bid to bring back CEO Sam Altman to the company after previous board members fired the founder, the reports added. According to Bloomberg, once on the ChatGPT maker's board, Summers undertook an internal review of Sam Altman’s firing.

It added that Summers was a “marquee” addition to OpenAI’s restructured board due to his deep ties to Wall Street and Washington, DC. His appointment came along with several other directors, including former National Security Agency chief Paul Nakasone and former Sony Entertainment executive Nicole Seligman.

What we know about the damning emails:

As per the BB report, the emails were released by the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform among documents from Jeffrey Epstein's estate. The controversial emails between Summers and Epstein showed they discussed the topic of public attitudes toward allegations of sexual harassment.

In his statement on 17 November, Summers said, “I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein,”

Notably, Summers left his top post at Harvard in 2006 along with public apology, following uproar over his comments in 2005 that innate differences in sex kept women from flourishing in math and science careers.

(With inputs from AP and Bloomberg)