{"id":18647,"date":"2022-03-28T10:28:16","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T14:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=18647"},"modified":"2022-03-28T10:28:16","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T14:28:16","slug":"tesla-head-ai-andrej-karpathy-sabbatical-people-worried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=18647","title":{"rendered":"Tesla’s head of AI is on sabbatical and people are worried"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk announced that Tesla\u2019s head of AI, Andrej Karpathy, is on a four-month sabbatical, and people are worried since other Tesla execs have left after going on sabbatical.<\/p>\n

It comes as Tesla expands its Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta to Canada.<\/p>\n

While Tesla has built a strong AI team, Karpathy is still seen as critical part of the automaker\u2019s effort to achieve full self-driving.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why many were worried to have not heard from him, and now CEO Elon Musk revealed on Twitter that the AI expert is on a four-month sabbatical.<\/p>\n

After Musk made the announcement on Twitter, Karpathy took to the social media himself to comment on his sabbatical:<\/p>\n

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Taking some time off to rest and travel after almost 5 years at Tesla. Especially excited to get focused time to re-sharpen my technical edge and train some neural nets! Though I already miss all the robots and GPU\/Dojo clusters and looking forward to having them at my fingertips again.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is nonetheless making some Tesla fans and investors worried because that\u2019s how it started for other Tesla executives in the past.<\/p>\n

For example, Doug Field, Tesla\u2019s former senior VP of engineering, took a leave of absense to \u201crecharge and spend time with his family\u201d back in 2018<\/a>. At the time, Tesla reassured everyone that Field hadn\u2019t left the company.<\/p>\n

A few months later, it was revealed the Field wouldn\u2019t be returning from his leave of absence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was revealed that after almost five years at Tesla, Field return to Apple. More recently, he joined Ford<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Electrek\u2019s Take<\/h2>\n

While there\u2019s always a risk of a similar situation with Karpathy, who leads Tesla\u2019s main AI programs, I think things are looking better for him at Tesla.<\/p>\n

I think the fact that Musk announced it and Karpathy himself decided to elaborate on Twitter is a good sign.<\/p>\n

However, the timing is not great as Musk is talking about Tesla aiming for FSD to become safer than human drivers by the end of the year. It is a giant task to do and likely harder without your head of AI.<\/p>\n

But health comes first, and if Karpathy needed it, I am glad he had an opportunity to take some time off.<\/p>\n

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