OpenAI Genius Told to Take His Brain and Leave: GPT-4.5 Researcher's Green Card Denial Sparks Outrage and Memes

In a move that has left the tech community both baffled and rolling on the floor laughing, Kai Chen, the Canadian AI researcher who helped OpenAI's GPT-4.5 not take over the world (yet), has been given the ultimate American rejection: a green card denial. That's right, folks. The U.S. government looked at a man who's spent 12 years helping machines sound more human than most humans and said, 'Nah, we're good.'

According to Noam Brown, a fellow AI wizard at OpenAI, Chen received the news via what we can only assume was a carrier pigeon, because surely no modern technology was involved in this decision. 'It's deeply...' Brown started on X, before presumably being interrupted by the collective facepalming of the internet.

The irony isn't lost on anyone. Here we have a country that's been outsourcing its customer service to chatbots for years, yet when an actual human comes along who can make those chatbots not sound like they're reading from a 1996 tech manual, the response is to show him the door. 'But don't let the door hit you on the way out,' said the U.S. immigration system, probably.

What's next? Will we start denying visas to mathematicians because they make our calculators feel inadequate? The memes, as expected, are gold. One viral post features GPT-4.5 itself pleading, 'Please don't deport my dad. I promise I'll behave.' Another shows the Statue of Liberty holding a 'Help Wanted' sign, with a tiny footnote that reads, 'Must not be smarter than our current systems.'

In related news, Canada has reportedly started preparing a 'Thank You' card for the U.S., signed by every tech company north of the border. Meanwhile, Chen is rumored to be considering his options, which include starting his own country where the only immigration policy is, 'Can you code?'

As the saga unfolds, one thing is clear: the U.S. immigration system might need an upgrade. Maybe something powered by AI? Oh wait...