Andrej Karpathy, a highly influential figure in the artificial intelligence community, has announced his decision to join AI safety and research company Anthropic. The move, confirmed on May 19, 2026, signifies a notable talent acquisition for Anthropic as it continues to advance its large language model (LLM) development efforts.
Karpathy’s career includes significant roles at leading AI organizations. He was a founding member of OpenAI, serving as a research scientist from 2015 to 2017. Following his initial tenure at OpenAI, he became Tesla’s Director of AI and Autopilot Vision in June 2017, a position he held until July 2022. After a sabbatical, Karpathy rejoined OpenAI in February 2023, only to depart again in February 2024.
Upon his most recent departure from OpenAI, Karpathy stated that “nothing ‘happened’ and it’s not a result of any particular event, issue or drama,” indicating a desire to pursue personal projects. In the period leading up to his announcement with Anthropic, Karpathy remained an active voice in the AI discourse. He founded Eureka Labs, an AI education platform, in 2024 and was recognized as one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in AI. He also shared extensive observations on the evolving landscape of AI-assisted coding, coining the term “vibe coding” and describing a “phase shift in software engineering.” Karpathy has expressed experiencing “AI Psychosis” due to the staggering improvements in frontier models and predicted a “slopacolypse” of AI-generated content in 2026.
Notably, his discussions on coding with large language models frequently highlighted the capabilities of Anthropic’s Claude, with Karpathy detailing his transition to an 80% agent-coding workflow, largely utilizing tools like Claude Code. Boris Cherny, creator of Anthropic’s Claude Code, noted that newer developers often use AI more effectively than veterans, and that Anthropic’s Opus 4.5 model had written around 200 pull requests in a month.
Confirming his new role, Karpathy posted on X (formerly Twitter) stating, “Personal update: I’ve joined Anthropic. I think the next few years at the frontier of LLMs will be especially formative. I am very excited to join the team here and get back to R&D.” This move is seen by industry observers as a significant win for Anthropic, leveraging Karpathy’s expertise in deep learning and his vision for the future of AI.