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Former US treasury secretary Larry Summers is exiting the board at the artificial intelligence firm, just a week after a series of electronic messages between him and notorious criminal Jeffrey Epstein became publicly available.

The economist stated in a release that he was "grateful for the opportunity to have served, optimistic about the potential of the company, and look forward tracking their progress".

The prominent academic, who formerly led Harvard University, announced on earlier this week that he would be scaling back from public responsibilities due to his connections with Jeffrey Epstein.

Message Exchange

The newly public messages demonstrated that Summers exchanged messages with Epstein until the day before his 2019 apprehension for accused human trafficking of young people.

In another announcement, the AI firm stated it understood the economist's choice to depart.

"We appreciate his numerous inputs and the viewpoint he offered to the governing body," the organization stated.

Congressional Action

This announcement arrives after both chambers of Congress decided on recently to endorse a bill that would require the federal prosecutors to make public its documents on the case.

The bill will subsequently move to the desk of the White House for approval. The President has indicated he plans to approve the legislation, after changing his view on the matter following pushback from his followers.

Correspondence Findings

A group of Epstein-related correspondence released by the legislative panel last week included multiple prominent individuals in the financier's previous network, without implying any criminal activity by those individuals.

The emails indicated that Summers and Epstein dined together frequently, with Epstein often trying to connect Summers to influential international personalities.

Individual Statement

After the correspondence were made available with the public, he stated he assumed "complete accountability for my ill-advised choice to persist in communicating with the financier".

He further stated that he desired "to reestablish faith and repair bonds with the individuals closest to me".

Professional History

The economist served in high-level positions under two Democratic presidents; acting as Treasury chief under the former president, and as leader of the White House economic team under Barack Obama.

He presided over the institution from the early 2000s and continues to be a professor there. When declaring his step-down from public commitments previously on this week, he indicated he would continue his academic responsibilities.

Additional Consequences

Following the economist's statement on earlier this week, the policy organization, a liberal policy institute in DC where he was a senior fellow, verified that the economist was not affiliated with the organization.

Summers became part of the directorate of the AI company, which creates the language model, in last year - following a defeated move to replace its chief executive OpenAI's head.