OpenAI loses key researchers as it pivots to enterprise AI

OpenAI is losing two of the architects of its most ambitious moonshots. Kevin Weil, who formerly led the company’s science research initiative, and Bill Peebles, the former researcher behind the AI video tool Sora, both announced their departures on Friday. These exits come as OpenAI consolidates its operations around enterprise AI and its forthcoming superapp, which is defined as OpenAI’s forthcoming product.

The departures follow OpenAI’s decision to cut back on “side quests,” which are internal projects deemed non-essential to the company’s core roadmap. These cuts include customer-facing bets like the Sora video tool and the OpenAI for Science group. Sora, which was shut down last month, was losing an estimated $1 million per day in compute costs. Meanwhile, the OpenAI for Science group—the internal research team behind Prism, which is an AI-powered platform for scientific discovery—is being absorbed into other research teams. Weil, whose tenure at the company lasted two years, described his time moving from Chief Product Officer to the research team to start OpenAI for Science as a mind-expanding experience. He added that accelerating science would be one of the most positive outcomes of the push toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

The OpenAI for Science team had a short and bumpy road after its formal announcement in October 2025. Weil deleted a tweet claiming GPT-5 had solved 10 previously unsolved Erdős mathematical problems, but that claim fell apart immediately when the mathematician who runs the website erdosproblems.com called it out. Despite the controversy, Weil’s departure comes just after his team released GPT-Rosalind, which is a model designed to accelerate life sciences research and drug discovery.

Peebles, who led the development of Sora, argued that the research behind the video tool requires space away from the company’s mainline roadmap. In a social media post, he wrote, “Cultivating entropy is the only way for a research lab to thrive long-term.” Alongside Weil and Peebles, OpenAI is also losing Srinivas Narayanan, its former chief technology officer of enterprise applications. Wired reported that Narayanan is reportedly leaving to spend more time with family, having announced the news internally.

Why it matters

OpenAI is narrowing its focus to enterprise AI and its forthcoming superapp, signaling a shift away from experimental research projects that do not align with its immediate commercial roadmap.