🔗 Share this article

Former US treasury secretary Larry Summers is exiting the directorate at the artificial intelligence firm, just days after a batch of digital correspondence between him and late convicted sex offender the accused trafficker became public.

He remarked in a release that he was "appreciative for the chance to have participated, optimistic about the potential of the enterprise, and anticipate tracking their advancement".

The prominent academic, who once presided over Harvard University, stated on Monday that he would be scaling back from public commitments due to his relationship with Epstein.

Digital Correspondence

The recently released communications revealed that the economist exchanged messages with the financier until the eve of the financier's 2019 arrest for alleged sex trafficking of minors.

In a separate statement, the artificial intelligence company expressed it accepted the economist's decision to step down.

"We appreciate his numerous inputs and the insight he brought to the governing body," the company commented.

Congressional Action

This news follows after the two houses of the US legislature agreed on Tuesday to pass a bill that would mandate the US justice department to release its records on Epstein.

The measure will afterward move to the desk of the White House for endorsement. Trump has indicated he expects to approve the bill, after modifying his view on the subject following pushback from his supporters.

Correspondence Findings

A collection of Epstein-related correspondence disclosed by the Congressional committee recently included several prominent individuals in the Epstein's previous network, without suggesting any criminal activity by those people.

The emails revealed that the economist and Jeffrey Epstein dined together frequently, with the billionaire often attempting to connect the academic to notable world leaders.

Individual Statement

After the correspondence were made available with the wider community, the former official expressed he took "full responsibility for my poor decision to maintain interacting with the financier".

He further stated that he wanted "to restore faith and repair relationships with the persons most important to me".

Career Background

The professor held high-level positions under two Democratic presidents; serving as treasury secretary under the former president, and as leader of the economic advisory body under Barack Obama.

He led Harvard from the early 2000s and remains a academic there. When declaring his withdrawal from public duties previously on Monday, he said he would continue his academic responsibilities.

Further Repercussions

Following his declaration on earlier this week, the Washington think tank, a left-leaning policy institute in the capital where Summers was a senior fellow, verified that the economist was no longer connected with the institution.

He joined the board of OpenAI, which develops ChatGPT, in 2023 - following a unsuccessful effort to remove its CEO Sam Altman.