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Ex-Treasury chief Lawrence Summers is departing from the board at OpenAI, just a week after a batch of electronic messages between him and notorious criminal the disgraced billionaire became publicly available.

Summers commented in a release that he was "thankful for the opportunity to have served, excited about the prospects of the organization, and look forward tracking their advancement".

The former Harvard president, who previously headed the Ivy League institution, declared on recently that he would be scaling back from public roles due to his relationship with Epstein.

Message Exchange

The newly public messages revealed that Summers exchanged messages with the financier until the eve of the financier's 2019 arrest for accused sex trafficking of minors.

In additional comments, the artificial intelligence company said it respected Summers' decision to resign.

"We appreciate his numerous inputs and the insight he brought to the Board," the company stated.

Congressional Action

This announcement comes after the two houses of Congress decided on recently to endorse a bill that would compel the US justice department to make public its records on Jeffrey Epstein.

The bill will afterward proceed to the administration of the White House for endorsement. The President has stated he plans to endorse the bill, after reversing his position on the matter following pressure from his base.

Email Contents

A group of Epstein-connected correspondence released by the legislative panel days ago included several well-known personalities in the financier's past associates, without suggesting any legal wrongdoing by those individuals.

The emails indicated that Summers and Jeffrey Epstein regularly had dinners together, with the billionaire often attempting to connect the official to notable international personalities.

Personal Response

After the emails were made available with the general audience, Summers stated he accepted "full responsibility for my misguided choice to persist in communicating with the financier".

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

Previous Positions

The economist held senior posts under two Democratic presidents; functioning as Treasury chief under Bill Clinton, and as leader of the National Economic Council under Barack Obama.

He headed Harvard from five years and is still a professor there. When declaring his withdrawal from public roles previously on Monday, he stated he would persist with his educational duties.

Further Repercussions

Following his statement on earlier this week, the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in the capital where Summers was a senior fellow, confirmed that he was no longer affiliated with the organization.

The former official entered the leadership of the technology firm, which creates the language model, in 2023 - following a failed attempt to oust its chief executive Sam Altman.