Anthropic Welcomes OpenAI Co-Founder Durk Kingma to Its Team

Durk Kingma, a co-founder of OpenAI, has announced he will be joining Anthropic. In a series of posts on X, Kingma shared that he will primarily work remotely from his home in the Netherlands, though he did not specify which team or role he will assume at Anthropic.

When contacted for comment, an Anthropic spokesperson referenced Kingma's posts. Kingma expressed enthusiasm about his new role, stating, "Anthropic’s approach to AI development aligns closely with my personal beliefs. I am eager to contribute to Anthropic’s mission of responsibly advancing powerful AI systems. I look forward to collaborating with their talented team, including several former colleagues from OpenAI and Google, as we tackle upcoming challenges!"

Kingma holds a Ph.D. in machine learning from the University of Amsterdam. Before joining OpenAI's founding team, he served as a doctoral fellow at Google. At OpenAI, Kingma led the algorithms team, focusing on foundational research and developing techniques for generative AI models, such as image generation (e.g., DALL-E 3) and large language models (e.g., ChatGPT).

In 2018, Kingma transitioned to a part-time angel investor and advisor for AI startups. He returned to Google in July of that year, working at Google Brain, a prominent AI research and development lab that merged with DeepMind in 2023.

Kingma's hire represents another strategic talent acquisition for Anthropic, which previously recruited OpenAI's former safety lead, Jan Leike, in May, and fellow co-founder John Schulman in August. Additionally, in May, the company made headlines by enlisting Instagram and Artifact co-founder Mike Krieger as its first head of product.

Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, was previously the VP of research at OpenAI, departing after disagreements regarding OpenAI’s evolving commercial focus. Amodei brought several ex-OpenAI staff to help establish Anthropic, including former policy lead Jack Clark. The company has consistently aimed to differentiate itself by prioritizing safety in AI development.