{"id":1257,"date":"2026-03-08T03:59:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T19:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/08\/openais-head-of-robotics-resigns-following-deal-with-the-department-of-defense\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T03:59:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T19:59:18","slug":"openais-head-of-robotics-resigns-following-deal-with-the-department-of-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/08\/openais-head-of-robotics-resigns-following-deal-with-the-department-of-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI&#8217;s head of robotics resigns following deal with the Department of Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:1;pos:1\" class=\"no-affiliate-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/ai\/google-and-openai-employees-sign-open-letter-in-solidarity-with-anthropic-194957274.html\">OpenAI<\/a> is going to need to find a new head of robotics. Caitlin Kalinowski, OpenAI&#8217;s now-former head of robotics, <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:2;pos:1\" class=\"no-affiliate-link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/kalinowski007\/status\/2030320074121478618?s=20\">posted on X<\/a> that she was resigning from her role, while criticizing the company&#8217;s haste in partnering with the <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:3;pos:1\" class=\"no-affiliate-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/ai\/openai-strikes-a-deal-with-the-defense-department-to-deploy-its-ai-models-054441785.html\">Department of Defense<\/a> without investigating proper guardrails.<\/p>\n<p>Kalinowski, who previously worked at Meta before leaving to join OpenAI in late 2024, <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:4;pos:1\" class=\"no-affiliate-link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/kalinowski007\/status\/2030331550236320071?s=20\">wrote on X<\/a> that &#8220;surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got.&#8221; Responding to another post, the former OpenAI exec explained that &#8220;the announcement was rushed without the guardrails defined,&#8221; adding that it was a &#8220;governance concern first and foremost.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>OpenAI confirmed Kalinowski&#8217;s resignation and said in a statement to Engadget that the company understands people have &#8220;strong views&#8221; about these issues and will continue to engage in discussions with relevant parties. The company also explained in the statement that it doesn&#8217;t support the issues that Kalinowski brought up.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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,&#8221; the OpenAI statement read.<\/p>\n<p>Kalinowski&#8217;s resignation may be the most high-profile fallout from OpenAI&#8217;s decision to sign a deal with the Department of Defense. The decision came just after <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:5;pos:1\" class=\"no-affiliate-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/ai\/anthropic-refuses-to-bow-to-pentagon-despite-hegseths-threats-085553126.html\">Anthropic<\/a> refused to comply with lifting certain AI guardrails around mass surveillance and developing fully autonomous weapons. However, even OpenAI&#8217;s CEO, <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:6;pos:1\" class=\"no-affiliate-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/ai\/openai-will-amend-defense-department-deal-to-prevent-mass-surveillance-in-the-us-050637400.html\">Sam Altman<\/a>, said that he would amend the deal with the Department of Defense to prohibit spying on Americans.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Engadget at https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/ai\/openais-head-of-robotics-resigns-following-deal-with-the-department-of-defense-195918777.html?src=rss<\/p><p>Please credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/obagg.com\">OBA Blog<\/a> &raquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/08\/openais-head-of-robotics-resigns-following-deal-with-the-department-of-defense\/\">OpenAI&#8217;s head of robotics resigns following deal with the Department of Defense<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OpenAI is going to need to find a new head of robotics. Caitlin Kalinowski, OpenAI&#8217;s now-former head of robotics, posted on X that she was resigning from her role, while criticizing the company&#8217;s haste in partnering with the Department of Defense without investigating proper guardrails. Kalinowski, who previously worked at Meta before leaving to join OpenAI in late 2024, wrote on X that &#8220;surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got.&#8221; Responding to another post, the former OpenAI exec explained that &#8220;the announcement was rushed without the guardrails defined,&#8221; adding that it was a &#8220;governance concern first and foremost.&#8221; OpenAI confirmed Kalinowski&#8217;s resignation and said in a statement to Engadget that the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-share"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}