Julia Villagra, OpenAI’s chief people officer, will leave the company on Friday, the company told Reuters. According to her LinkedIn page, Villagra began working at the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company in February 2024 as the chief of human resources. In March, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that she had been promoted to chief people officer. The business claims that until Fidji Simo, the newly appointed CEO of applications, appoints a new chief people officer, Jason Kwon, the chief strategy officer of OpenAI, would oversee Villagra’s position.
The reason behind Villagra’s departure is her own wish to use art, music, and narrative to inform people about the transition to artificial general intelligence—what OpenAI refers to as the moment when AI “outperforms humans at most economically valuable work.” A Reuters/Ipsos poll indicates that many Americans are becoming concerned about AI as it transforms sectors, jobs, and daily life. Even though there are now little indications of widespread unemployment—the unemployment rate in the United States was only 4.2% in July—71 percent of those surveyed expressed concern that AI will be “putting too many people out of work permanently.”
In the meantime, Microsoft-backed OpenAI is facing off against Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an unprecedented talent war, offering $100 million in signing incentives to OpenAI researchers. Recent talks by OpenAI about selling employee shares would raise the startup’s valuation from its current $300 billion to $500 billion, highlighting both its quick growth in users and income and the need for additional funding as the fierce rivalry for talent in AI research heats up.
