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Former US treasury secretary the Harvard professor is leaving the governing body at OpenAI, just a week after a collection of digital correspondence between him and late convicted sex offender the accused trafficker became public.

Summers stated in a statement that he was "thankful for the chance to have contributed, excited about the potential of the company, and anticipate observing their advancement".

The former Harvard president, who previously led Harvard University, stated on earlier this week that he would be stepping back from public responsibilities due to his relationship with the convicted sex offender.

Digital Correspondence

The newly public communications demonstrated that Summers corresponded with Jeffrey Epstein until the day before Epstein's 2019 arrest for accused trafficking of young people.

In a separate statement, the AI firm stated it respected Summers' decision to depart.

"We value his significant contributions and the perspective he offered to the directors," the company stated.

Legislative Background

This news arrives after the two houses of the US legislature voted on this week to endorse a bill that would compel the Department of Justice to make public its files on Epstein.

The bill will then move to the desk of the White House for signature. Trump has said he plans to sign the measure, after changing his position on the issue following pressure from his followers.

Message Details

A batch of financier-linked messages disclosed by the House Oversight Committee days ago referenced numerous prominent individuals in the financier's former circle, without indicating any criminal activity by those figures.

The emails revealed that the economist and Epstein regularly had dinners together, with the billionaire often seeking to link the academic to influential world leaders.

Personal Response

After the messages were released with the general audience, the former official expressed he assumed "full responsibility for my misguided judgment to persist in corresponding with Jeffrey Epstein".

He continued that he desired "to reestablish faith and repair connections with the individuals most important to me".

Previous Positions

The economist held high-level positions under party leaders; serving as economic leader under Bill Clinton, and as leader of the White House economic team under the former leader.

He presided over the university from five years and is still a academic there. When declaring his departure from public roles earlier on Monday, he indicated he would persist with his teaching commitments.

Other Impacts

Following Summers' statement on Monday, the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank in DC where the professor was a senior fellow, announced that Summers was not associated with the institution.

The former official became part of the board of the AI company, which makes the AI chatbot, in last year - following a failed attempt to oust its CEO the company leader.