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Ex-Treasury chief Lawrence Summers is leaving the board at the artificial intelligence firm, just days after a batch of digital correspondence between him and late convicted sex offender the disgraced billionaire became publicly available.

The economist stated in a release that he was "thankful for the opportunity to have participated, enthusiastic about the prospects of the organization, and anticipate tracking their development".

Summers, who formerly presided over Harvard University, announced on earlier this week that he would be scaling back from public responsibilities due to his association with Epstein.

Email Communications

The newly public messages showed that the economist exchanged messages with Jeffrey Epstein until the 24 hours preceding Epstein's 2019 apprehension for suspected sex trafficking of underage individuals.

In another announcement, the technology organization expressed it understood Summers' choice to step down.

"We acknowledge his many contributions and the viewpoint he provided to the directors," OpenAI commented.

Legislative Background

This news comes after both chambers of the legislative branch voted on recently to endorse a legislation that would compel the federal prosecutors to release its documents on the case.

The measure will subsequently proceed to the desk of the White House for signature. He has said he plans to sign the legislation, after changing his stance on the matter following objections from his supporters.

Email Contents

A group of financier-linked correspondence released by the Congressional committee last week included multiple prominent individuals in the billionaire's former circle, without suggesting any legal wrongdoing by those people.

The messages indicated that Summers and the financier regularly had dinners together, with the billionaire often attempting to link the official to notable world leaders.

Personal Response

After the messages were released with the public, Summers said he took "full responsibility for my misguided judgment to persist in interacting with Jeffrey Epstein".

He added that he desired "to rebuild faith and mend bonds with the individuals most important to me".

Previous Positions

The professor served in leadership roles under Democratic administrations; functioning as Treasury chief under the former president, and as head of the White House economic team under Barack Obama.

He headed the university from five years and remains a professor there. When announcing his withdrawal from public duties previously on this week, he stated he would persist with his educational duties.

Further Repercussions

Following Summers' announcement on earlier this week, the Washington think tank, a liberal think tank in the capital where he was a senior fellow, announced that Summers was no longer connected with the organization.

The former official joined the leadership of the AI company, which makes the AI chatbot, in the previous year - following a unsuccessful effort to replace its top executive OpenAI's head.