OpenAI Disbands AI Preparedness Team Before IPO, Reassigning Bio and Cyber Risk Work
Updated
Updated · The Verge · Aug 16
OpenAI Disbands AI Preparedness Team Before IPO, Reassigning Bio and Cyber Risk Work
3 articles · Updated · The Verge · Aug 16
Summary
OpenAI dissolved its preparedness team at the end of July, ending a unit tasked with judging whether advanced models posed serious risks and how to mitigate them.
Bio and cyber oversight has been split up and folded into existing teams, while former preparedness head Dylan Scandinaro shifts to work on risks from “recursive self-improving” AI.
The move extends a broader safety reorganization ahead of an expected IPO, after OpenAI had already dismantled its AGI readiness and superalignment teams.
Recent departures of ethics lead Chloé Bakalar, chief futurist Josh Achiam and safety head Johannes Heidecke have fueled criticism that OpenAI is favoring product launches over safety work.