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Ex-Treasury chief Lawrence Summers is exiting the governing body at the ChatGPT creator, just days after a series of emails between him and late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein became public.

He stated in an announcement that he was "thankful for the privilege to have contributed, optimistic about the promise of the company, and look forward observing their progress".

The former Harvard president, who previously presided over Harvard University, announced on Monday that he would be withdrawing from public commitments due to his connections with the convicted sex offender.

Message Exchange

The newly public emails revealed that the official corresponded with Epstein until the day before Epstein's 2019 detention for accused human trafficking of underage individuals.

In another announcement, the AI firm stated it accepted Summers' decision to step down.

"We acknowledge his numerous inputs and the perspective he brought to the directors," OpenAI stated.

Congressional Action

This news comes after the two houses of Congress decided on Tuesday to approve a measure that would require the US justice department to release its documents on the case.

The measure will then proceed to the administration of the White House for approval. Trump has indicated he plans to sign the legislation, after modifying his view on the issue following pressure from his followers.

Message Details

A collection of Epstein-related correspondence released by the Congressional committee recently included numerous well-known personalities in the billionaire's past associates, without indicating any legal wrongdoing by those people.

The emails showed that the professor and the financier regularly had dinners together, with he often attempting to connect the official to influential international personalities.

Personal Response

After the emails were made available with the wider community, Summers said he assumed "total ownership for my misguided choice to maintain communicating with Jeffrey Epstein".

He added that he hoped "to rebuild trust and repair connections with the individuals most important to me".

Previous Positions

The economist occupied high-level positions under Democratic administrations; serving as treasury secretary under the former president, and as leader of the White House economic team under the former leader.

He headed the university from 2001 to 2006 and continues to be a academic there. When declaring his withdrawal from public commitments earlier on Monday, he stated he would continue his educational duties.

Other Impacts

Following Summers' declaration on Monday, the Center for American Progress, a liberal research organization in Washington where the professor was a prominent member, verified that the economist was ceased to be associated with the group.

The former official became part of the directorate of the technology firm, which develops the AI chatbot, in the previous year - following a failed attempt to oust its CEO OpenAI's head.