OpenAI Shuts Down AI Safety Team
▼ Summary
– OpenAI has disbanded its “Mission Alignment” team, which was formed in September 2024 to communicate the company’s mission to employees and the public.
– The team’s former leader, Josh Achiam, has been reassigned to a new role as OpenAI’s “chief futurist,” where he will study how the world changes in response to AI.
– The other six or seven team members have been reassigned to different parts of OpenAI to perform similar work, though their exact new roles are unspecified.
– An OpenAI spokesperson stated the team’s dissolution was part of a routine company reorganization, not a shift away from its core mission.
– This follows the earlier disbanding of OpenAI’s “superalignment team” in 2024, which was a separate group focused on long-term AI safety risks.
OpenAI has restructured its internal teams, leading to the dissolution of a group specifically formed to communicate the company’s core objectives. This move involves reassigning staff and transforming the former team leader’s position into a new strategic role. The company confirmed that the members of this mission alignment team have been integrated into other areas within the organization, a decision first reported by industry news outlet Platformer. This team was reportedly established in late 2024 with the dedicated purpose of promoting OpenAI’s foundational goal: ensuring that artificial general intelligence ultimately benefits all of humanity.
A spokesperson for OpenAI clarified the team’s function, stating it served as a support mechanism to help both employees and the public grasp the company’s mission and the broader impact of AI. They emphasized that this educational work remains ongoing, now distributed across the entire company rather than housed in a single unit. The shift is framed as a standard operational reorganization for a rapidly evolving tech firm.
The former head of that team, Josh Achiam, has transitioned to a newly created position as OpenAI’s “chief futurist.” In a recent blog post, Achiam outlined his new focus, which involves studying how the world will transform in response to advances in AI and AGI. He stated his goal is to support the overarching mission through this forward-looking lens and noted he will be collaborating with Jason Pruet, a physicist at OpenAI.
Regarding the rest of the mission alignment personnel, a group consisting of six or seven individuals, the spokesperson indicated they have been moved to different departments. While the exact new assignments were not specified, the spokesperson assured that these employees continue to engage in conceptually similar work. It remains unclear whether Achiam will build a new team under his futurist title.
This is not the first time OpenAI has dissolved a team with “alignment” in its name. A previous group, called the “superalignment team,” was formed in 2023 to research long-term existential risks from AI but was itself disbanded the following year. Achiam’s online professional profiles still reference his previous leadership role, highlighting his personal interest in securing a positive long-term future for humanity.
(Source: TechCrunch)
