I resigned from OpenAI. I care deeply about the Robotics team and the work we built together. This wasn’t an easy call. AI has an important role in national security. But surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are…
— Caitlin Kalinowski (@kalinowski007) March 7, 2026
Caitlin Kalinowski, head of robotics and consumer hardware at OpenAI, makes no qualms about her feelings on their new contract with the Pentagon, and is resigning in protest, saying that:
— Surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got.
OpenAI’s agreement with the Pentagon was indeed hastily put together, and has been amended many times, after Anthropic refused the terms. ChatGPT saw an exodus to Anthropic’s Claude afterward.
OpenAI says in a statement to TechCrunch that «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.»
Kalinowski later posted a follow-up saying this is a governance issue about rushing the announcement, not personal.
Read more: Kalinowski’s X post, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, and Reuters.