Kevin Weil and Bill Peebles exit OpenAI as company continues to shed ‘side quests'

2026-04-20

Two of the architects of OpenAI's most ambitious moonshots, Kevin Weil and Bill Peebles, are leaving the company. Weil led the company's science research initiative while Peebles was the researcher behind Sora. Both announced their departures on Friday. OpenAI recently decided to cut back on 'side quests' as it consolidates around enterprise AI and its forthcoming superapp.