OpenAI policy exec who opposed chatbot’s “adult mode” reportedly fired on discrimination claim

Ryan Beiermeister, who was OpenAI’s vice president of product policy, was fired in January after a male colleague accused her of gender discrimination, the Wall Street Journal reported. has reported.

“The accusation that I discriminated against anyone is absolutely false,” Beiermeister told the Journal. TechCrunch reached out to OpenAI for comment and also reached out with an email that appears to be related to Beiermeister; neither had responded by the time of publication.

According to the Journal report, Beiermeister’s termination came after she criticized a planned ChatGPT feature called “adult mode.” The new mode is said to introduce erotica to the chatbot user experience. Fidji Simo, CEO of Applications at OpenAI – a role that oversees the company’s consumer-facing products – has told reporters that the new feature is expected to launch in the first quarter of this year.

Beiermeister and others at the company have expressed concerns about the potential impact of the new adult feature on certain users, according to the report.

OpenAI reportedly said that Beiermeister, who was fired following a leave of absence, had “made valuable contributions during her time at OpenAI, and that her departure was not related to any issues she raised while working at the company.”

from Beiermeister LinkedIn profile says she previously worked on Meta’s product team for four years and for Palantir for over seven years.