OpenAI has just gotten rid of the team that ensures its AI systems are safe for all users.
The company disbanded an internal group focused on making sure its AI systems were “safe, trustworthy, and consistently aligned with human values.” At the same time, the team’s former leader has been reassigned as the company’s chief futurist. OpenAI confirmed to TechCrunch that the team’s members have been placed in other roles across the organization. The development was first reported by Platformer.
The alignment team was formed in September 2024 as an internal unit dedicated to AI alignment, a field focused on ensuring advanced systems operate in line with human intent. That work includes preparing AI to handle adversarial conditions and high-stakes scenarios without harmful or catastrophic outcomes.
“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,” a post from OpenAI’s Alignment Research blog states.
A related job posting described the team’s mission as “developing methodologies that enable AI to robustly follow human intent across a wide range of scenarios, including those that are adversarial or high-stakes.”
In a blog post published on Wednesday, former alignment lead Josh Achiam outlined his new responsibilities. “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 wrote.
According to the company, the restructuring reflects routine changes within a rapidly evolving organization.
