Caitlin Kalinowski, who led hardware development within OpenAI’s robotics division since joining the company in November 2024, is now parting ways with the AI firm. The exec announced her resignation on March 8, citing the rushed nature of OpenAI’s recent agreement with the US Department of Defense (rebranded as the Department of War under the Trump administration).
“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 lines that deserved more deliberation than they got. This was about principle, not people. I have deep respect for Sam and the team, and I’m proud of what we built together,” she wrote in a post on LinkedIn. OpenAI’s robotics division, while still early-stage, has grown to include around 100 data collectors in San Francisco and plans for a second lab in Richmond, California.
OpenAI confirmed Kalinowski’s departure in statements to multiple media outlets. The company added its position that the Pentagon agreement establishes “a workable path for responsible national security uses of AI while making clear our red lines: no domestic surveillance and no autonomous weapons. 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.” Her departure coincides with the hiring of ex-Scale Labs CEO Benjamin Bolte at OpenAI. “I suppose this is as good a time as any to share that I’ve joined OpenAI,” he wrote in a post on X.
To provide some context, Kalinowski joined OpenAI from Meta, where she spent nearly a decade leading hardware efforts—including the development of the Orion augmented reality glasses (previously Project Nazare) and earlier work on Oculus VR headsets and Apple MacBook designs. At OpenAI, she oversaw robotics hardware under VP of Research Aditya Ramesh, contributing to efforts to train robotic arms for household tasks and build toward humanoid systems in dedicated San Francisco and planned Richmond labs.
The resignation follows OpenAI’s announcement last month of a deal allowing its models to be deployed in classified DoD networks. The agreement came hours after negotiations between the Pentagon and rival Anthropic collapsed, with Anthropic refusing terms over concerns about mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. The Pentagon subsequently designated Anthropic a “supply-chain risk,” prompting President Trump to order federal agencies to phase out its technology within six months. Anthropic has vowed to challenge the designation in court. Her departure represents the most high-profile internal fallout from the Pentagon deal to date. It coincides with broader consumer backlash, including a 295% day-over-day surge in ChatGPT uninstalls in the US in February, as well as a corresponding rise in downloads and App Store rankings for Anthropic’s Claude, which has maintained the No. 1 free app position in the US and several other countries.
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