OpenAI disbands mission alignment team, which focused on ‘safe’ and ‘trustworthy’ AI development
Source: TechCrunch
OpenAI has disbanded a team that focused on — as the company itself described — ensuring that its AI systems are “safe, trustworthy, and consistently aligned with human values.” At the same time, the team’s former leader has been given a new role as the company’s “chief futurist.”
OpenAI confirmed to TechCrunch that the team’s members have now been assigned to other roles. The news was first reported by Platformer.
Background
The disbanded team appears to have been formed in September 2024 (source). It was the startup’s internal unit dedicated to working on alignment—a broad field that seeks to ensure AI acts in accordance with human interests (Time article).
“We want these systems to consistently follow human intent in complex, real‑world scenarios and adversarial conditions, avoid catastrophic behavior, and remain controllable, auditable, and aligned with human values.” — OpenAI Alignment Research blog
An OpenAI job posting for the Alignment team described it as dedicated to AI research that focuses on “developing methodologies that enable AI to robustly follow human intent across a wide range of scenarios, including those that are adversarial or high‑stakes.”
New Role: Chief Futurist
In a blog post published Wednesday, Josh Achiam, the former head of OpenAI’s Alignment team, explained his new role as the company’s chief futurist:
“My goal is to support OpenAI’s mission — to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity — by studying how the world will change in response to AI, AGI, and beyond.”
Achiam noted that, in his new role, he would be collaborating with Jason Pruet, a physicist from OpenAI’s technical staff.
Reorganization Details
A spokesperson for OpenAI said the rest of the Alignment team — a group of six or seven people — had subsequently been reassigned to different parts of the company. While the exact destinations were not disclosed, the spokesperson indicated that the members would continue work similar to their previous focus. It remains unclear whether Achiam will have a new team as part of his futurist role.
The spokesperson attributed the disbanding to routine reorganizations that occur within a fast‑moving company.
Previous “Superalignment” Team
OpenAI previously had a “superalignment team,” formed in 2023 (announcement), which focused on studying long‑term existential threats posed by AI. That team was disbanded in 2024 (CNBC report).
References
- OpenAI Alignment team job posting: https://openai.com/careers/researcher-alignment-san-francisco/
- Platformer report: https://www.platformer.news/openai-mission-alignment-team-joshua-achiam/
- TechCrunch article on formation: https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/25/openais-chief-research-officer-has-left/
- Time article on human‑AI alignment: https://time.com/7335983/human-ai-alignment-problem/
- OpenAI Alignment Research blog post: https://alignment.openai.com/hello-world/
- Chief futurist announcement: https://openaiglobalaffairs.substack.com/p/introducing-our-chief-futurist
- Superalignment team announcement: https://openai.com/index/introducing-superalignment/
- CNBC report on superalignment disbanding: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/17/openai-superalignment-sutskever-leike.html
- Josh Achiam personal website: https://jachiam.github.io/about.html
- Josh Achiam LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-achiam-13887199/