OpenAI has hired Sarah Friar, the former chief executive of neighborhood social networking service Nextdoor Holdings Inc., to serve as chief financial officer, a role that has gone unfilled at the fast-growing artificial intelligence startup for two years.
The maker of ChatGPT has also named Kevin Weil as its new chief product officer, the company is expected to announce on Monday. Weil previously ran product development at Instagram and Twitter as an executive in these companies.
The expanded C-Suite comes at an important time for OpenAI. The company is working to increase revenue from its artificial intelligence products by selling services to enterprise customers while also adding features like enhanced voice capabilities to its consumer chatbot app. OpenAI has also begun training a more powerful AI model that could help it stay ahead of a growing number of well-funded rivals vying for the same users and companies.
“Sarah and Kevin bring deep experience that will enable OpenAI to scale our operations, define a strategy for the next phase of growth, and ensure our teams have the resources they need to continue to thrive,” said Sam, CEO of OpenAI. Altman in a draft blog post announcing the hires.
Friar, who also sits on the board of Walmart Inc. and was previously CFO of financial technology company Square, will help OpenAI continue to invest in AI research as it expands its global business, the startup said. Weil, former president of products and business at Satellite imaging services company Planet Labs PBC will lead a product team dedicated to applying OpenAI’s research work to serve the company’s consumers and business users.
OpenAI leadership is currently facing renewed concerns that it has prioritized commercializing AI over ensuring its security. The startup disbanded a high-profile security group focused on addressing the long-term risks of AI. It was also hit by a series of employee departures from security-related teams. OpenAI, in turn, highlighted its commitment to developing AI in a safe and responsible way.
See more information: A timeline of all recent accusations made against OpenAI and Sam Altman
“The OpenAI product team has set the pace for both breakthrough innovation and thoughtful deployment of AI products,” Weil said in a statement. “I’m excited to be part of the next phase of growth as we continue to safely and responsibly build toward AGI,” he said, referring to a hypothetical form of AI that could outperform humans in many tasks.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
