OpenAI Quietly Kills Mission Alignment Team
The AI giant disbanded its safety-focused team and scattered its members across the company.
OpenAI has dissolved its mission alignment team, reassigning all seven employees to different parts of the company. The move happened in recent weeks with little fanfare.
Joshua Achiam, who led the now-defunct team, isn't leaving though. He's getting a shiny new title: "chief futurist." Whatever that means.
The mission alignment team was tasked with keeping OpenAI focused on its stated goals around beneficial AI development. Its quiet elimination raises questions about how the company prioritizes such concerns as it races ahead in the AI arms race.
This isn't the first time OpenAI has shuffled its safety-related teams. The company has faced ongoing scrutiny about whether commercial pressures are overtaking its original nonprofit mission.
Seven staffers. One disbanded team. And a new executive title that sounds like it came straight from a sci-fi novel.