OpenAI disbanded its Mission Alignment team this week, reassigning the group's leader to a newly created "chief futurist" position. The team's six to seven members have been scattered across other divisions within the company.
The Mission Alignment team formed in September 2024 as OpenAI's internal unit dedicated to AI alignment work. Its stated mission focused on developing methodologies that enable AI to "robustly follow human intent across a wide range of scenarios, including those that are adversarial or high-stakes," according to company job postings.
Former team leader Josh Achiam now serves as OpenAI's chief futurist.
"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,"
Platformer first reported the team's dissolution, with TechCrunch later confirming the restructuring. OpenAI described the move as routine reorganization within a fast-moving company. The Mission Alignment team represented OpenAI's second dedicated safety group to be disbanded in recent years.
OpenAI previously maintained a "superalignment team" formed in 2023 to study long-term existential threats posed by AI. That team was allocated 20% of OpenAI's computing resources but disbanded in 2024 when co-leaders Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike departed the company.
The restructuring comes as OpenAI reportedly pursues a funding round that would value the company north of $150 billion. Last year, OpenAI generated approximately $13 billion in revenue, according to sources familiar with the company's finances.
Over the next four years, OpenAI expects to spend about $100 billion more than its current revenue. The company aims to triple its revenue in the coming year to fund tens of billions in computing infrastructure investments. OpenAI has introduced ads in ChatGPT to boost revenue amid these financial pressures.
OpenAI's safety team disbandments follow a pattern of leadership reshuffles since ChatGPT's explosive launch in late 2022. The company now faces increasing pressure to deliver returns for investors including Microsoft, which has invested $13 billion in the AI developer. SoftBank's earnings have benefited from its OpenAI investment gains, highlighting the financial stakes involved.
Former Mission Alignment team members continue safety-related work in their new roles, according to company statements. Achiam will collaborate with physicist Jason Pruet from OpenAI's technical staff in his chief futurist position.
The Mission Alignment team's original charter focused on ensuring AI systems remain "controllable, auditable, and aligned with human values" in complex real-world scenarios. Its dissolution marks another shift in OpenAI's approach to balancing commercial priorities with safety research commitments, following other strategic changes like dropping its AI hardware branding.
