{"id":522929,"date":"2026-03-08T17:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T17:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/522929\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T17:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T17:29:07","slug":"openais-robotics-hardware-lead-resigns-following-deal-with-the-department-of-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/522929\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI&#8217;s robotics hardware lead resigns following deal with the Department of Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\"><a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:1;pos:1\" class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/ai\/google-and-openai-employees-sign-open-letter-in-solidarity-with-anthropic-194957274.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:OpenAI;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:1;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;OpenAI&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yAffiliateService&quot;:&quot;doNotAffiliate&quot;,&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">OpenAI<\/a>&#8216;s robotics hardware lead is out. Caitlin Kalinowski, who oversaw hardware within the robotics division of OpenAI, <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:2;pos:1\" class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/kalinowski007\/status\/2030320074121478618?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:posted on X;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:2;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;posted on X&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yAffiliateService&quot;:&quot;doNotAffiliate&quot;,&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;2&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\">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=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/ai\/openai-strikes-a-deal-with-the-defense-department-to-deploy-its-ai-models-054441785.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Department of Defense;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:3;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Department of Defense&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yAffiliateService&quot;:&quot;doNotAffiliate&quot;,&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;3&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Department of Defense<\/a> without investigating proper guardrails. OpenAI told Engadget that there are no plans to replace Kalinowski.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">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=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/kalinowski007\/status\/2030331550236320071?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:wrote on X;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:4;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;wrote on X&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yAffiliateService&quot;:&quot;doNotAffiliate&quot;,&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;4&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\">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 class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">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 class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">&#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 class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">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=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/ai\/anthropic-refuses-to-bow-to-pentagon-despite-hegseths-threats-085553126.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Anthropic;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:5;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Anthropic&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yAffiliateService&quot;:&quot;doNotAffiliate&quot;,&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;5&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">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=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/ai\/openai-will-amend-defense-department-deal-to-prevent-mass-surveillance-in-the-us-050637400.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Sam Altman;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:6;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Sam Altman&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yAffiliateService&quot;:&quot;doNotAffiliate&quot;,&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;6&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sam Altman<\/a>, said that he would amend the deal with the Department of Defense to prohibit spying on Americans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"col-body mb-4 leading-7 text-[18px] md:leading-8 break-words min-w-0 charcoal-color\">Correction, March 8 2026, 10:30AM ET: This story has been updated to correct Kalinowski&#8217;s role at OpenAI to &#8220;robotics hardware lead&#8221; instead of &#8220;head of robotics.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OpenAI&#8216;s robotics hardware lead is out. Caitlin Kalinowski, who oversaw hardware within the robotics division of OpenAI, posted&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,206076,48,51729,278,3387,61],"class_list":["post-522929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-caitlin-kalinowski","tag-canada","tag-department-of-defense","tag-openai","tag-robotics","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}