Kevin Weil and Bill Peebles leave OpenAI

The head of science initiatives at OpenAI and the leader of its Sora AI video team are both leaving the company. Their departures come as OpenAI continues to reorganize its products and has seen several recent leadership exits.

Bill Peebles, who led Sora, said he is also leaving OpenAI just weeks after the company announced it would stop supporting the AI video tool.

In recent weeks, OpenAI has been simplifying its products as it competes with rivals like Anthropic and prepares for a possible IPO.

OpenAI is not only shutting down Sora but also building a desktop app that brings together tools like ChatGPT, coding features, and a web browser. Kevin Weil said on X (formerly Twitter) that his team is being moved into other research groups.

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An OpenAI spokesperson said these changes are meant to simplify and unify its products. The science tool Prism, previously led by Weil, will now join the Codex team.

The departures come after several leadership changes at OpenAI. Earlier this month, the company said its Chief Operating Officer is moving to a new role, while two other senior executives are taking leave for health reasons.

After its October 2025 announcement, the team faced some issues early on. Kevin Weil deleted a post claiming GPT-5 had solved 10 unsolved Erdős math problems, but the owner of erdosproblems.com quickly disputed the claim.

Weil’s exit also came shortly after his team released GPT-Rosalind, a new model designed to help with life sciences research and drug discovery.

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