Caitlin Kalinowski, who joined OpenAI from Meta in 2024 to oversee hardware for the robotics division, said she is leaving the company.
In a post to X on Saturday, Kalinowski criticized OpenAI’s recent contract with the Department of Defense.
“AI plays an important role in national security, but surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight or lethal autonomy without human permission are lines that require careful consideration,” 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 work in robotics.
An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed Kalinowski’s resignation and defended the company’s contract with the Department of Defense.
“We believe our agreement with the Department of Defense creates a viable path toward responsible national security use of AI, while drawing clear lines on domestic surveillance and no autonomous weapons,” a spokesperson told Business Insider. “We recognize that people have strong opinions on these issues, and we continue to engage in discussions with our employees, governments, civil society and communities around the world.”
OpenAI signed an agreement with the Department of Defense last week, allowing the Pentagon to use its AI products. The deal comes after rival Anthropic rejected a similar deal, citing concerns that the technology could be used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons.
Since then, Washington has effectively blacklisted Anthropic. President Donald Trump described the company as a “woke extremist” in a post on Truth Social and called on federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth subsequently designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk and said Pentagon contractors would be prohibited from working with the company.
OpenAI’s decision to enter into an agreement with the Department of Defense sparked an immediate backlash. Some users abandoned ChatGPT in protest. Anthropic’s chatbot, Claude, is currently the number one free app on the Apple App Store, surpassing OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Claude’s US downloads increased 240% month-over-month in February.
Kalinowski’s departure is a setback for OpenAI’s robotics ambitions.
Last year, the company quietly built a lab in San Francisco that employs about 100 data collectors. The team is training a robotic arm to perform household chores as part of a broader push to develop humanoid robots. The company also told employees it plans to open a second lab in Richmond, California, in December.
Sources familiar with OpenAI’s plans also previously told Business Insider that the company is considering several early-stage hardware initiatives, including robotics, but none that are central to its core mission are being considered at this time.
Correction: March 8, 2026 — A previous version of this article incorrectly listed Kalinowski’s role at OpenAI. She oversees the hardware for the robotics department, not the robotics department itself.
