OpenAI names Chaya Nayak for Special Initiatives

OpenAI has appointed Chaya Nayak to work on special initiatives at the company. She will report to Irina Kofman, Head of Special Initiatives, Office of the CTO.

Sharing it in a post on LinkedIn, Nayak wrote, “I'm joining OpenAI to work with Irina Kofman on Special Initiatives - exploring new opportunities at the frontier of AI. It feels like the perfect next chapter: to take everything I’ve learned and pour it into work that will help define what comes next for technology and society.”

Before her new role, Nayak spent nearly a decade at Facebook, where she served as Director of Product Management for Generative AI, Product Manager & Head of Open Research & Transparency, and Head of Data for Good.

Recollecting her time at the company, Nayak wrote, “I remember my first weeks at Facebook like they were yesterday. I joined to help jumpstart Data for Good, an effort to show how data and AI/ML could benefit the world. What started as a bold experiment grew into the foundation of my career.”

Before Facebook, her experience included roles at The Aspen Institute, Premise Data Corporation, Quid, Samasource, UC Berkeley, Institute for the Future, The Ergo Group, City of Milwaukee Office of Environmental Sustainability, and Pathways to Empowerment.