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Former US treasury secretary Larry Summers is leaving the board at OpenAI, just several days after a batch of digital correspondence between him and deceased financier the accused trafficker became public.

He commented in a release that he was "grateful for the privilege to have served, enthusiastic about the promise of the enterprise, and look forward observing their progress".

Summers, who formerly led Harvard University, stated on Monday that he would be stepping back from public commitments due to his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Message Exchange

The recently released emails showed that Summers exchanged messages with the financier until the day before the financier's 2019 detention for suspected trafficking of young people.

In another announcement, the AI firm expressed it accepted his decision to depart.

"We appreciate his many contributions and the insight he provided to the directors," OpenAI remarked.

Legislative Background

This development comes after the two houses of Congress agreed on this week to endorse a measure that would mandate the US justice department to disclose its documents on the case.

The legislation will then head to the desk of President Trump for endorsement. Trump has said he expects to endorse the measure, after modifying his stance on the subject following pushback from his supporters.

Email Contents

A group of Epstein-connected correspondence disclosed by the Congressional committee recently referenced several well-known personalities in the billionaire's past associates, without indicating any criminal activity by those individuals.

The emails revealed that the economist and the financier often met for meals, with he often attempting to link the academic to notable international personalities.

Individual Statement

After the messages were released with the wider community, the former official said he assumed "complete accountability for my ill-advised choice to persist in communicating with Jeffrey Epstein".

He added that he wanted "to restore confidence and repair relationships with the people most important to me".

Previous Positions

The professor served in senior posts under party leaders; acting as Treasury chief under President Clinton, and as director of the National Economic Council under President Obama.

He presided over the university from the early 2000s and is still a professor there. When declaring his withdrawal from public roles previously on Monday, he indicated he would maintain his teaching commitments.

Additional Consequences

Following Summers' announcement on Monday, the Washington think tank, a liberal think tank in Washington where the professor was a senior fellow, verified that the economist was no longer associated with the group.

The former official joined the board of the AI company, which creates the language model, in the previous year - following a unsuccessful effort to oust its top executive Sam Altman.