OpenAI has disbanded a team dedicated to ensuring its AI systems are "safe, trustworthy, and consistently aligned with human values." Concurrently, the former head of this team has been appointed to a new role as the company's "Chief Futurist," and the remaining team members have been reassigned to other positions within the organization.
The dissolved team, which appears to have been established in September 2024, was an internal unit at the startup focused on alignment research. This is a broad field within the AI industry aimed at ensuring artificial intelligence systems act in accordance with human interests.
"We want these systems to consistently follow human intent in complex real-world scenarios and under adversarial conditions, avoid catastrophic behaviors, and remain controllable, auditable, and aligned with human values," stated an article on OpenAI's alignment research blog.
A job listing from OpenAI described the alignment team's work as dedicated to AI research, focusing on "developing methods to make AI robustly follow human intent across a wide range of scenarios, including adversarial or high-stakes situations."
In a blog post, 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—ensuring that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity—by studying how the world will change due to AI, AGI, and what comes next," Achiam wrote.
Achiam noted that in his new capacity, he will collaborate with Jason Pruet, a physicist on OpenAI's technical staff.
An OpenAI spokesperson stated that the remaining members of the alignment team—a small group of six to seven people—have subsequently been redistributed to various departments across the company. The spokesperson could not specify where the individuals were reassigned but indicated they are performing similar work in their new roles. It remains unclear whether Achiam will lead a new team in his "futurist" capacity.
The spokesperson attributed the team's dissolution to routine, rapid organizational restructuring within the company.
OpenAI previously had a so-called "Superalignment Team"—formed in 2023 to focus on researching long-term existential threats posed by AI—but that team was also disbanded in 2024.
Achiam's personal website still lists him as the Head of Mission Alignment at OpenAI, describing his interest in ensuring "the long-term future of humanity is a good one." His LinkedIn profile shows he has held the position of Head of Mission Alignment since September 2024.
