--- description: Find out why Daniel Kokotajlo made TIME’s list of the most influential people in artificial intelligence. title: TIME100 AI 2024: Daniel Kokotajlo image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9118eb69ef304d11/698a5a989d83e819d7b9a7ac/TIME100-AI-2024-THINKERS_Daniel-Kokotajlo-NEW.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Updated: Sep 06, 2024Published: Sep 05, 2024 # Daniel Kokotajlo by [Tharin Pillay](/author/tharin-pillay/) ## Tharin Pillay Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Pillay is an editorial fellow at TIME.  Photo-Illustration by TIME (Source: Jason Andrew—The New York Times/Redux) In 2022, Daniel Kokotajlo joined OpenAI as a governance researcher. Two years later, he made [headlines](https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2024/5/17/24158478/openai-departures-sam-altman-employees-chatgpt-release "undefined") by resigning and refusing to sign a non-disparagement clause that would have cost him approximately $2 million in equity. His choice to prioritize his “[freedom to speak up](https://twitter.com/DKokotajlo67142/status/1797994246328459731 "undefined")” over financial gain has fuelled a wider conversation about AI safety and corporate responsibility. Along with other former and current employees of OpenAI and Google DeepMind, Kokotajlo [signed](https://righttowarn.ai/ "undefined") a letter arguing that all AI labs have strong financial incentives to avoid oversight. It called for whistleblower-style protections that would give industry researchers the “right to warn” about the dangers of AI without fear of reprisal while protecting their anonymity. It also advocated for a “culture of open criticism” within companies as they race to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), hypothetical AI systems that OpenAI [describes as](https://x.com/DKokotajlo67142/status/1797994238468407380 "undefined") “generally smarter than humans.” While bound by confidentiality agreements, Kokotajlo believes current AI systems are rapidly approaching AGI-level capabilities, and is deeply worried about both the potentially catastrophic risks these systems would pose, and the fact that they would concentrate power in the hands of whoever controls them, he tells TIME. "A sane civilization would not be proceeding with the creation of this incredibly powerful technology until we had some better idea of what we were doing and how we were going to keep it safe," he says. _\*Disclosure: OpenAI and TIME have_ [_a licensing and technology agreement_](https://time.com/6992955/time-and-openai-announce-strategic-content-partnership/ "undefined") _that allows OpenAI to access TIME's archives._ **Correction, Sept. 6** _The original version of this story misattributed the definition of artificial general intelligence (AGI) as hypothetical AI systems "generally smarter than humans." This definition comes from OpenAI, not Daniel Kokotajlo._ Daniel Kokotajlo: The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2024 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2024/7012881/daniel-kokotajlo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2024/7012881/daniel-kokotajlo/"},"headline":"Daniel Kokotajlo","datePublished":"2024-09-05T11:10:16.000Z","dateModified":"2024-09-06T14:07:01.000Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2024/7012881/daniel-kokotajlo/","keywords":["Tech"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9118eb69ef304d11/698a5a989d83e819d7b9a7ac/TIME100-AI-2024-THINKERS_Daniel-Kokotajlo-NEW.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tharin Pillay","jobTitle":"Pillay is an editorial fellow at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/tharin-pillay/"}],"creator":"Tharin Pillay","articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9118eb69ef304d11/698a5a989d83e819d7b9a7ac/TIME100-AI-2024-THINKERS_Daniel-Kokotajlo-NEW.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2024/7012881/daniel-kokotajlo/","name":"Daniel Kokotajlo"}}]}] ```