A senior leadership exit at OpenAI has drawn attention to growing debate around the use of artificial intelligence in defense and surveillance. Caitlin Kalinowski, Head of Robotics and Consumer Hardware at OpenAI, has announced her resignation after raising concerns about the company’s recent agreement with the US Department of Defense.
Kalinowski shared her decision in a post on professional social media platform LinkedIn, stating that the move to deploy OpenAI’s models on classified Pentagon networks was made too quickly and without sufficient safeguards.
“AI has an important role in national security,” Kalinowski wrote. “But surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got.”
She further said that while she respects CEO Sam Altman and the broader team at OpenAI, the Pentagon agreement was announced “without the guardrails defined,” describing it as a governance issue that should not have been rushed.
The controversy centers on a deal between OpenAI and the US Department of Defense that will see the company’s AI systems deployed within classified environments. Reports indicate the agreement was arranged on the same day the Department of War ended its engagement with Anthropic after the company declined to comply with certain demands.
OpenAI has defended the agreement, stating that additional safeguards were built into the partnership to prevent misuse. The company also reiterated that its policies include “red lines” that prohibit the use of its technology for domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons.
In a statement shared with sources, OpenAI said, “We recognize that people have strong views about these issues and we will continue to engage in discussion with employees, government, civil society and communities around the world.”
Kalinowski joined OpenAI in 2024 after previously leading augmented reality hardware development at Meta Platforms. Her resignation highlights increasing tensions within the AI industry over how advanced models should be deployed in defense, surveillance and government contracts.
The development comes alongside another high-profile exit from OpenAI. Vice President of Research Max Schwarzer recently left the company to join Anthropic.
In a post on microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter), Schwarzer said that many of the people he “trusts most and respects” had joined Anthropic in recent years. At OpenAI, he played a key role in the development of the o1 inference model and led the post-training of the company’s o1 and o3 models. He also headed the post-training team responsible for delivering GPT-5, 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3-Codex.
The leadership departures come shortly after OpenAI announced its agreement with the Department of War to deploy advanced AI systems in classified environments. Following the announcement, reports suggest that around 1.5 million subscribers left ChatGPT amid public criticism and concerns over potential AI-driven surveillance.
Anthropic had earlier rejected an update to its Pentagon contract, stating that the proposed terms did not align with the company’s policies regarding the use of AI in mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.
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