OpenAI has disbanded a team that was focused on ensuring its AI systems are safe, trustworthy, and consistently aligned with human values. The team’s former leader, Josh Achiam, has been given a new role as the company’s “chief futurist.”
OpenAI confirmed that the team’s members have been reassigned to other roles within the company. The news was first reported by Platformer.
The disbanded team appears to have been formed in September of 2024. It was the startup’s internal unit dedicated to working on alignment, a broad field within the industry that seeks to ensure AI acts in accordance with human interests. This work involves creating systems that consistently follow human intent in complex, real-world scenarios, avoid catastrophic behavior, and remain controllable and aligned with human values.
In a blog post published Wednesday, Josh Achiam explained his new role as Chief Futurist. He stated his 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. Achiam noted he will be collaborating in this role with Jason Pruet, a physicist from OpenAI’s technical staff.
An OpenAI spokesperson said the rest of the Alignment team, a group of six or seven people, had been reassigned to different parts of the company. The spokesperson could not specify where the team members were assigned but said they were engaged in similar work. It remains unclear whether Achiam will have a new team as part of his futurist role.
The spokesperson attributed the disbanding of the team to the kinds of routine reorganizations that occur within a fast-moving company.
OpenAI previously had a “superalignment team” formed in 2023, which focused on studying long-term existential threats posed by AI. That team was disbanded in 2024.
Achiam’s personal website still lists him as head of Mission Alignment at OpenAI and describes him as being interested in ensuring that the long-term future of humanity is good. His LinkedIn profile shows he served as Head of Mission Alignment since September of 2024.