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Former US treasury secretary the Harvard professor is leaving the board at the ChatGPT creator, just several days after a series of emails between him and late convicted sex offender the accused trafficker became publicly available.

The economist stated in an announcement that he was "thankful for the opportunity to have participated, enthusiastic about the potential of the company, and look forward following their advancement".

The prominent academic, who once led the prestigious university, announced on earlier this week that he would be scaling back from public roles due to his association with Epstein.

Message Exchange

The recently released emails demonstrated that Summers exchanged messages with Jeffrey Epstein until the eve of his 2019 detention for accused human trafficking of underage individuals.

In additional comments, the AI firm expressed it accepted the economist's decision to depart.

"We appreciate his significant contributions and the viewpoint he provided to the Board," OpenAI commented.

Congressional Action

This news arrives after the entire Congress of the US legislature decided on Tuesday to approve a bill that would compel the federal prosecutors to make public its files on the case.

The measure will subsequently head to the administration of President Trump for approval. The President has said he intends to endorse the measure, after modifying his position on the issue following objections from his followers.

Email Contents

A group of Epstein-related emails made public by the House Oversight Committee days ago referenced numerous well-known personalities in the billionaire's past associates, without suggesting any illegal behavior by those people.

The emails indicated that Summers and Jeffrey Epstein regularly had dinners together, with he often seeking to link Summers to influential international personalities.

Individual Statement

After the correspondence were made available with the wider community, the former official expressed he accepted "full responsibility for my poor decision to maintain corresponding with the financier".

He continued that he wanted "to reestablish trust and fix connections with the people closest to me".

Previous Positions

Summers held senior posts under two Democratic presidents; functioning as Treasury chief under the former president, and as leader of the National Economic Council under President Obama.

He led the university from 2001 to 2006 and is still a professor there. When declaring his withdrawal from public commitments earlier on Monday, he stated he would continue his academic responsibilities.

Further Repercussions

Following the economist's announcement on Monday, the Washington think tank, a liberal think tank in the capital where the professor was a researcher, verified that he was no longer affiliated with the institution.

Summers joined the directorate of the AI company, which creates the language model, in last year - following a defeated move to oust its top executive Sam Altman.