Nov. 19 (UPI) — Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers will resign from the OpenAI board of directors following intensified scrutiny over emails between him and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, he announced Wednesday.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to have served, excited about the potential of the company, and look forward to following their progress,” Summers told CNBC and CNN in a statement.
Summers, 70, revealed Monday that he will “step back” from all public duties, but it was initially unclear if that was to include his role with the artificial intelligence startup.
This week, Summers said he was “deeply ashamed” after emails released last week revealed years of correspondence with the late billionaire financier and convicted sexual predator Epstein.
The AI company said it respected his decision.
“We appreciate his many contributions and the perspective he brought to the board,” the OpenAI board of directors said in a statement.
Summers, former secretary of the United States Treasury under former U.S. President Bill Clinton, was later president of Ivy League Harvard University from 2001 to 2006 and director of the National Economic Council under then-President Barack Obama.
On Tuesday, Congress overwhelmingly passed a bill to release the Epstein files.
But it remains to be seen if President Donald Trump will sign the Epstein bill or if the White House will fully comply.