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Ex-Treasury chief Lawrence Summers is departing from the directorate at OpenAI, just days after a batch of digital correspondence between him and deceased financier the accused trafficker became publicly available.

He remarked in a statement that he was "thankful for the opportunity to have contributed, excited about the promise of the company, and eagerly await observing their progress".

The prominent academic, who formerly led the Ivy League institution, stated on earlier this week that he would be scaling back from public commitments due to his connections with Jeffrey Epstein.

Message Exchange

The newly public emails demonstrated that the official corresponded with the financier until the 24 hours preceding the financier's 2019 arrest for accused sex trafficking of young people.

In a separate statement, the artificial intelligence company stated it accepted Summers' decision to depart.

"We acknowledge his significant contributions and the viewpoint he brought to the Board," OpenAI remarked.

Political Context

This announcement arrives after both chambers of the US legislature voted on this week to endorse a legislation that would compel the US justice department to make public its documents on the case.

The bill will afterward move to the desk of President Trump for endorsement. Trump has stated he intends to approve the bill, after reversing his position on the matter following pushback from his supporters.

Correspondence Findings

A collection of Epstein-connected correspondence released by the legislative panel recently mentioned multiple high-profile figures in the Epstein's previous network, without implying any criminal activity by those figures.

The messages showed that the economist and Epstein often met for meals, with Epstein often attempting to link the academic to prominent world leaders.

Personal Response

After the messages were shared with the wider community, he expressed he assumed "full responsibility for my misguided choice to persist in corresponding with Jeffrey Epstein".

He added that he hoped "to reestablish trust and fix connections with the persons most important to me".

Previous Positions

The economist served in high-level positions under party leaders; acting as treasury secretary under the former president, and as head of the White House economic team under Barack Obama.

He presided over Harvard from five years and is still a faculty member there. When announcing his withdrawal from public commitments recently on this week, he indicated he would maintain his teaching commitments.

Additional Consequences

Following the economist's statement on Monday, the Center for American Progress, a progressive policy institute in the capital where he was a researcher, confirmed that he was not connected with the institution.

Summers became part of the board of the technology firm, which makes the language model, in 2023 - following a unsuccessful effort to oust its top executive OpenAI's head.