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Former US treasury secretary Lawrence Summers is leaving the board at OpenAI, just days after a series of digital correspondence between him and deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein became public.

He commented in a release that he was "appreciative for the chance to have contributed, excited about the potential of the company, and eagerly await tracking their progress".

The prominent academic, who formerly headed the Ivy League institution, declared on Monday that he would be scaling back from public responsibilities due to his connections with Jeffrey Epstein.

Email Communications

The freshly disclosed messages demonstrated that the economist exchanged messages with Jeffrey Epstein until the 24 hours preceding his 2019 apprehension for alleged human trafficking of minors.

In another announcement, the artificial intelligence company said it respected the economist's choice to depart.

"We value his many contributions and the viewpoint he brought to the directors," the company commented.

Legislative Background

This news comes after both chambers of the legislative branch agreed on recently to approve a bill that would require the US justice department to release its records on Jeffrey Epstein.

The legislation will subsequently move to the desk of the White House for endorsement. Trump has said he intends to approve the bill, after modifying his view on the issue following pushback from his followers.

Email Contents

A batch of Epstein-connected correspondence made public by the Congressional committee recently mentioned several high-profile figures in the billionaire's past associates, without suggesting any criminal activity by those people.

The emails revealed that Summers and Epstein often met for meals, with he often seeking to connect Summers to prominent world leaders.

Individual Statement

After the messages were made available with the public, he expressed he took "full responsibility for my misguided judgment to persist in corresponding with Mr Epstein".

He continued that he wanted "to rebuild trust and fix connections with the people most important to me".

Previous Positions

Summers held senior posts under party leaders; functioning as economic leader under President Clinton, and as director of the White House economic team under Barack Obama.

He headed Harvard from five years and continues to be a professor there. When announcing his step-down from public commitments recently on this week, he stated he would continue his academic responsibilities.

Further Repercussions

Following the economist's declaration on earlier this week, the Washington think tank, a progressive policy institute in DC where the professor was a senior fellow, confirmed that he was ceased to be connected with the group.

He became part of the board of OpenAI, which makes the AI chatbot, in the previous year - following a unsuccessful effort to replace its chief executive the company leader.