OpenAI Refocuses: Departures of Kevin Weil and Bill Peebles

OpenAI is undergoing a significant transition with the departure of two key figures, Kevin Weil and Bill Peebles. Weil, who was leading the scientific research initiative, and Peebles, the mastermind behind the AI video tool Sora, both announced their departures last Friday. This decision comes as OpenAI chooses to focus on developing artificial intelligence for businesses and its future "superapp."

OpenAI's strategic realignment involves the abandonment of several "side quests," including projects like Sora and OpenAI for Science. Sora, which incurred computing costs of about one million dollars per day, was shut down last month. As for OpenAI for Science, an internal research group that had developed Prism, an AI platform aimed at accelerating scientific discovery, it is now integrated into other research teams.

In a message on social media, Kevin Weil expressed his gratitude for the two years spent at OpenAI, describing this period as "an expansion of mind, from the role of Chief Product Officer to joining the research team and launching OpenAI for Science." He also deleted a controversial tweet claiming that GPT-5 had solved Erdős problems, a statement quickly refuted by the mathematician in charge of the site erdosproblems.com. The team experienced a short and chaotic journey following its official announcement in October 2025.

Weil's departure comes shortly after the launch of GPT-Rosalind, a model designed to accelerate research in life sciences and drug discovery. Meanwhile, Bill Peebles praised the impact of Sora on the video industry while emphasizing the need for a research space independent of the company's main objectives. He wrote, "Cultivating entropy is the only way for a research lab to thrive in the long term."

At the same time, OpenAI is also seeing the departure of Srinivas Narayanan, Chief Technology Officer of enterprise applications, who has decided to step back to spend more time with his family, according to Wired.