OpenAI, maker of the ChatGPT AI chatbot, has made moves in the employment market over the last few days, bringing two big names into its ranks.
Last week, Gabor Cselle – the co-founder of the now-defunct social media platform Pebble – confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) that he had joined the company. That was followed a few days afterwards by an announcement on LinkedIn from Meta executive Caitlin Kalinowski that she too had joined the company.
It caps a turbulent 12 months of musical chairs at OpenAI, that began with Sam Altman’s shock firing last November and has culminated in greater restructuring plans in the fall.
Who Is Gabor Cselle?
Cselle told his 21,000 X followers on Friday that he had joined OpenAI, praising the talented colleagues he was now working with. He remained tight-lipped in the post about the capacity in which he had been hired, and his LinkedIn profile shows him simply as an “Employee.”
If the name sounds familiar, it’s because he has been involved with many Silicon Valley tech companies and startups and in the past.
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Having spent time at Twitter, Google and Yahoo and being involved with the establishment of startups such as reMail and Namo media, Cselle co-founded Pebble (also known as T2) two years ago as an alternative to the Elon Musk-owned X.
Pebble confirmed that it was shutting down on 1st November last year.
Since then, Cselle has posted from his X profile about his involvement in AI projects such as Granola and Choosy Chat.
Excited to share that I’ve joined @OpenAI!
The talent density here is incredible. Learning a lot already. Will share more about what I’m working on in due time.
— Gabor Cselle (@gabor) November 1, 2024
Who Is Caitlin Kalinowski?
Kalinowski’s future at OpenAI is much more clear, with her LinkedIn announcement confirming her hire as a robotics and consumer hardware lead and an initial focus on “OpenAI’s robotics work and partnerships to help bring AI into the physical world and unlock its benefits for humanity.”
“OpenAI and ChatGPT have already changed the world, improving how people get and interact with information and delivering meaningful benefits around the globe. AI is the most exciting engineering frontier in tech right now, and I could not be more excited to be part of this team.” – Caitlin Kalinowski on LinkedIn
Having worked as a Product Design Engineer at Apple between 2008 and 2013, Kalinowski spent more than a decade working on VR and AR products – she was Head of VR Hardware during the release of several Oculus and Meta Quest products, before becoming Meta’s Head of AR Glasses Hardware to help develop Orion Holographic glasses.
She is also a prominent LGBTQ advocate in the tech world. Kalinowski is the strategic advisor to Lesbians Who Tech – the “largest LGBTQ professional network globally and the leading women’s tech conference.”
The Open Door at OpenAI
The pair of appointments is another feel good story for the executive leadership team at OpenAI, following its poaching of Sebastien Bubeck from Microsoft last month. He had held the post of VP AI and Distinguished Scientist at the tech giant and was seen as a big coup when OpenAI desperately needed one.
That’s because they had suffered the departure of Chief Technology Officer and former CEO Mira Muti just a few weeks earlier.
And three other key executives – Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew, VP of Post Training Barret Zoph and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever – all left OpenAI’s ranks over the course of 2024.
But at least CEO and co-founder Sam Altman has remained in place after the remarkable few weeks at the end of last year when he was fired and then rehired by the company.
