OpenAI’s Asia-Pacific public policy Chief Sanghyun Lee departs after brief tenure of six months

OpenAI’s chief public policy executive based in Singapore is leaving the company after only six months, according to a source familiar with the situation. Sanghyun Lee joined OpenAI in April 2023, having spent six years previously at Google. The reasons behind Lee’s departure have not yet been disclosed. Lee's responsibilities included overseeing OpenAI's public policy and government engagement across various Asia-Pacific countries including Australia, Japan, South Korea, India and Southeast Asia.

He was tasked with building and managing relationships with senior policymakers, regulators and institutions to promote responsible AI development and deployment. OpenAI previously apologized in October for its AI models inadvertently accessing Australian government websites, vowing to enhance security and response times. In the US, OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI firms are under scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission regarding product safety following several high-profile cybersecurity incidents.

The Asia-Pacific region is crucial to OpenAI's expansion, given the presence of large, youthful markets in key markets like India, South Korea, Japan and Australia. OpenAI has opened offices in these countries to bolster its operations. The company is in talks with investors to raise up to $30 billion or more in a funding round that would value it at around $1.4 trillion. OpenAI aims to achieve or surpass $70 billion in annualized revenue by the end of 2026.