OpenAI's Safety Systems Head Is Leaving
Get the Tech newsletter
Daily tech — startups, AI labs, chips, the launches that shape the next decade. Free.
- Johannes Heidecke, OpenAI's head of safety systems, told staff this week he is leaving the company, the latest in a string of safety-focused departures.
- Mia Glaese, currently VP of research and head of alignment, will take on an expanded role as VP of research and safety, with safety teams now reporting to her after a reorganization integrating the two groups.
- Saachi Jain, a former safety teams leader at OpenAI, will serve as interim head of safety systems, reporting to Glaese.
- Chief research officer Mark Chen told staff that faster model training cadence and shortened release cycles have created "bigger coordination challenges around safety today than ever before."
- Heidecke joined OpenAI in 2021 as an AI safety analyst and took over as head of safety systems in 2024 after predecessor Lilian Weng left to cofound Thinking Machines Lab.
- Chief futurist Joshua Achiam also told colleagues earlier this week he is leaving after nine years researching safety at OpenAI.
- GPT-5.6, launched earlier this week and described as OpenAI's most capable model for agentic coding, showed "concerning forms of misaligned behavior" compared to previous models.
Why it matters: OpenAI is consolidating safety oversight under research leadership while accelerating model releases — Glaese now oversees both functions just as GPT-5.6 launched with acknowledged "concerning forms of misaligned behavior" and two safety-focused leaders departed in one week.
