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Ex-Treasury chief the Harvard professor is departing from the directorate at OpenAI, just a week after a batch of electronic messages between him and late convicted sex offender the disgraced billionaire became widely known.

Summers remarked in a release that he was "thankful for the privilege to have served, optimistic about the potential of the organization, and eagerly await tracking their advancement".

Summers, who once presided over the Ivy League institution, stated on earlier this week that he would be stepping back from public commitments due to his association with Epstein.

Digital Correspondence

The freshly disclosed communications showed that Summers communicated with Epstein until the 24 hours preceding the financier's 2019 detention for alleged sex trafficking of underage individuals.

In another announcement, the AI firm expressed it understood his determination to depart.

"We acknowledge his many contributions and the viewpoint he brought to the Board," OpenAI stated.

Political Context

This development follows after the two houses of the legislative branch agreed on recently to endorse a bill that would mandate the US justice department to make public its records on the case.

The legislation will then move to the desk of the White House for endorsement. He has indicated he intends to sign the legislation, after changing his view on the matter following pushback from his supporters.

Message Details

A batch of Epstein-connected emails disclosed by the legislative panel recently mentioned multiple prominent individuals in the Epstein's past associates, without suggesting any criminal activity by those individuals.

The emails indicated that the professor and the financier regularly had dinners together, with Epstein often seeking to link the academic to notable global figures.

Personal Response

After the emails were made available with the wider community, he expressed he accepted "total ownership for my misguided judgment to continue interacting with Mr Epstein".

He continued that he desired "to rebuild trust and repair connections with the people nearest to me".

Previous Positions

Summers occupied high-level positions under Democratic administrations; acting as treasury secretary under Bill Clinton, and as leader of the National Economic Council under Barack Obama.

He led the university from 2001 to 2006 and is still a professor there. When declaring his step-down from public roles recently on Monday, he said he would maintain his teaching commitments.

Additional Consequences

Following the economist's announcement on earlier this week, the Washington think tank, a progressive research organization in the capital where Summers was a prominent member, announced that he was not associated with the institution.

The former official joined the leadership of the AI company, which develops the language model, in last year - following a defeated move to remove its chief executive OpenAI's head.