OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy joins Anthropic's pre-training team | TechCrunch

Andrej Karpathy joined Anthropic to return to research and development at the frontier of large language models. He is working on pre-training under team lead Nick Joseph, focusing on large-scale training runs that build core knowledge and capabilities for Claude. Pre-training is described as compute-intensive and expensive. An Anthropic spokesperson said Karpathy will start a team focused on using Claude to accelerate pre-training research. Karpathy is noted for bridging LLM theory and large-scale training practice, signaling an emphasis on AI-assisted research to remain competitive. His prior roles include deep learning and computer vision at OpenAI, leading Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving programs, and later founding Eureka Labs focused on AI assistants for education.

"“I've joined Anthropic. I think the next few years at the frontier of LLMs will be especially formative. I am very excited to join the team here and get back to R&D. I remain deeply passionate about education and plan to resume my work on it in time.”"

"Karpathy started this week at Anthropic, where he is working on pre-training under team lead Nick Joseph. Pre-training is responsible for the large-scale training runs that give Claude its core knowledge and capabilities, according to the company. It's also one of the most expensive, compute-intensive phases of building a frontier model."

"An Anthropic spokesperson told TechCrunch that Karpathy will start a team focused on using Claude to accelerate pre-training research. Karpathy is one of the few researchers who can bridge the gap between LLM theory and large-scale training practice. Tapping him to build such a team is a clear sign from Anthropic that it believes AI-assisted research, rather than pure compute, is how it stays competitive with OpenAI and Google."

"While at OpenAI, Karpathy focused on deep learning and computer vision until he departed in 2017 to join Tesla. He led Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) and Autopilot programs before leaving in 2022. He then went back to OpenAI for one year before leaving again in 2024 to start Eureka Labs, a startup dedicated to applying AI assistants to education."

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