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Ex-Treasury chief Lawrence Summers is departing from the board at the artificial intelligence firm, just several days after a collection of electronic messages between him and deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein became publicly available.

He commented in a release that he was "thankful for the opportunity to have served, excited about the promise of the enterprise, and eagerly await following their progress".

The prominent academic, who formerly led the Ivy League institution, declared on recently that he would be stepping back from public commitments due to his association with Jeffrey Epstein.

Email Communications

The recently released communications showed that the economist exchanged messages with Epstein until the 24 hours preceding his 2019 detention for alleged trafficking of minors.

In another announcement, the technology organization expressed it respected Summers' decision to step down.

"We value his many contributions and the insight he brought to the directors," the organization commented.

Political Context

This announcement arrives after the two houses of Congress voted on recently to pass a legislation that would require the federal prosecutors to disclose its documents on Epstein.

The legislation will then move to the office of the White House for approval. The President has said he intends to sign the bill, after changing his position on the subject following pushback from his followers.

Message Details

A group of financier-linked correspondence disclosed by the House Oversight Committee last week included multiple well-known personalities in the Epstein's former circle, without implying any criminal activity by those figures.

The messages indicated that Summers and Jeffrey Epstein dined together frequently, with he often attempting to connect the official to influential international personalities.

Personal Accountability

After the correspondence were shared with the public, he stated he assumed "full responsibility for my poor decision to maintain communicating with Jeffrey Epstein".

He continued that he hoped "to restore trust and repair bonds with the persons most important to me".

Career Background

Summers held senior posts under two Democratic presidents; serving as Treasury chief under Bill Clinton, and as head of the White House economic team under the former leader.

He headed the institution from 2001 to 2006 and remains a professor there. When announcing his step-down from public duties recently on Monday, he indicated he would maintain his educational duties.

Further Repercussions

Following Summers' statement on earlier this week, the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank in Washington where he was a senior fellow, announced that Summers was no longer affiliated with the institution.

Summers entered the directorate of the technology firm, which makes the AI chatbot, in last year - following a defeated move to replace its CEO OpenAI's head.