OpenAI executive Brad Lightcap is leaving

What they're saying: "It is bittersweet to share that I'll be moving on from OpenAI to start something new," Lightcap wrote in a message to employees that he posted on X.

• He will stay at OpenAI for a few weeks and said he's "not going far" without offering much detail.
• Lightcap reported directly to CEO Sam Altman, covering special projects after being moved out of the COO role in an in April when Thinking Machines Barret Zoph returned to OpenAI.
• Zoph left OpenAI five months later.

Zoom in: Lightcap is just the latest OpenAI executive to leave the firm.

• Fidji Simo, OpenAI's number two executive, stepped down over health issues in July, though she has since joined an AI health startup.
• OpenAI's head of ethics also left the company this week less than a year after joining.
• The company's CMO also recently left to focus on her recovery from cancer.

Zoom out: It comes amid a broader trend of longtime AI executives and even founders leaving their firms.

• The latest high profile example is Jeff Dean, who left Google to start Discovery Loop.
• Lilian Weng, a co-founder of Thinking Machines, left to rejoin OpenAI.

The bottom line: The AI race's talent reshuffle continues.