John Carmack steps back from Oculus to focus on AI

Oculus-Quest-Lifestyle (Image credit: Windows Central)

What you need to know

John Carmack stepped away from his role at Oculus and will now act as a "consulting CTO."
Carmack will focus on artificial general intelligence, a type of AI that's more human-like than other types of AI.
Carmack had a significant influence on the direction and development of the Oculus platform.

Carmack had a large influence on the growth and development of the Oculus platform. He joined Oculus six years ago and worked on the Gear VR, Oculus Go, Oculus Quest, and several other projects. Carmack is known in the Oculus community for genuinely listening to and responding to feedback.

As pointed out by Engadget, AGI aims to perform intelligent tasks in a way similar to how a human would perform them. Carmack believes he has a chance to make a difference in this field,

I think it is possible, enormously valuable, and that I have a non-negligible chance of making a difference there, so by a Pascal's Mugging sort of logic, I should be working on it.

For now, Carmack plans to work on his next project from home and draft his son to help him.

Sean Endicott is a news writer and apps editor for Windows Central with 11+ years of experience. A Nottingham Trent journalism graduate, Sean has covered the industry’s arc from the Lumia era to the launch of Windows 11 and generative AI. Having started at Thrifter, he uses his expertise in price tracking to help readers find genuine hardware value.

Beyond tech news, Sean is a UK sports media pioneer. In 2017, he became one of the first to stream via smartphone and is an expert in AP Capture systems. A tech-forward coach, he was named 2024 BAFA Youth Coach of the Year. He is focused on using technology—from AI to Clipchamp—to gain a practical edge.