Kingma, who was part of OpenAI’s founding team, shared on social media that he will primarily work remotely from the Netherlands, though details of his role at Anthropic remain undisclosed.
Kingma cited alignment between Anthropic’s AI development ethos and his own, expressing excitement about contributing to the company’s mission of building safe and powerful AI systems.
Personal news: I’m joining @AnthropicAI! 😄 Anthropic’s approach to AI development resonates significantly with my own beliefs; looking forward to contributing to Anthropic’s mission of developing powerful AI systems responsibly. Can’t wait to work with their talented team,…
— Durk Kingma (@dpkingma) October 1, 2024
Kingma, who holds a Ph.D. in machine learning from the University of Amsterdam, is known for his contributions to foundational AI research at OpenAI, including work on generative models like DALL-E and ChatGPT.
After leaving OpenAI in 2018, Kingma became an advisor for AI startups and rejoined Google, working at Google Brain before it merged with DeepMind in 2023.
Anthropic was founded by former OpenAI executives including CEO Dario Amodei, who reportedly left OpenAI over its growing commercial focus. Kingma joins a team that includes other ex-OpenAI colleagues like John Schulman and Jan Leike.
Kingma’s hire bolsters Anthropic’s growing talent pool as it aims to differentiate itself from other AI players by focusing on responsible AI development.
