OpenAI’s robotics head quits after company’s Pentagon deal: ‘This was about principle’

• Caitlin Kalinowski, OpenAI’s head of robotics, said on Saturday that she had resigned.
• In an X post, she criticized OpenAI’s deal with the Pentagon.
• The deal raised concerns over the use of AI surveillance and lethal autonomous systems.

Caitlin Kalinowski, a hardware executive who joined OpenAI from Meta in 2024 and leads its robotics division, said she is resigning from the company.

In a post on X on Saturday, Kalinowski criticized OpenAI’s recent deal with the Pentagon.

“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,” she wrote.

She called her resignation a matter of principle, and said she still deeply respects OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and is proud of the company’s robotics work.

A spokesperson for OpenAI confirmed Kalinowski’s resignation and defended its deal with the Defense Department.

“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,” the spokesperson told Business Insider. “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.”

OpenAI struck a deal with the Pentagon last week, allowing the Defense Department to use its AI products. The agreement came after its rival Anthropic refused a similar deal over concerns that the technology would be used for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.

Washington has since effectively blacklisted Anthropic. President Donald Trump described the company as “radical woke” in a Truth Social post and demanded federal agencies stop using Anthropic’s technology. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth then designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk and said Defense Department contractors would be barred from working with the company.

OpenAI’s decision to strike a deal with the Pentagon caused an immediate backlash. Some users ditched ChatGPT in protest. Anthropic’s chatbot, Claude, is now the No. 1 free app on the Apple App Store, unseating OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Claude’s US downloads increased 240% month over month in February.

Kalinowski’s exit is a setback for OpenAI’s robotics ambitions.

Over the last year, the company has quietly built a San Francisco lab that employs about 100 data collectors. Teams are training a robotic arm to do household chores as part of a broader push to build a humanoid robot. The company told employees in December it also plans to open a second lab in Richmond, California.

A source with knowledge of OpenAI’s plans also previously told Business Insider that the company is exploring several early-stage hardware initiatives — including robotics — but none are considered central to its core mission at this point.