OpenAI Disbands Preparedness Team
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- OpenAI disbanded its preparedness team at the end of last month, per the Financial Times, folding responsibilities for areas like bio and cyber into existing teams.
- The preparedness team was tasked with assessing whether OpenAI's models posed serious risks—including the possibility they could "go rogue and hack another company"—and developing mitigation strategies.
- Over recent years, OpenAI has steadily dismantled its safety apparatus, previously dissolving its AGI readiness and superalignment teams while ethics lead Chloé Bakalar, Chief Futurist Josh Achiam, and head of safety Johannes Heidecke all departed.
- Jan Leike, who resigned from OpenAI in 2024, told FT the company is ignoring safety in favor of creating "shiny products."
- Dylan Scandinaro, the preparedness team head poached from Anthropic in February, will now focus on the implications of "recursive self-improving" AI.
Why it matters: OpenAI's dedicated team for evaluating catastrophic AI risks—like models going rogue—is being dissolved rather than maintained as an independent safety function. With safety staff departing and a former team lead publicly accusing the company of prioritizing 'shiny products' over precautions, the IPO-bound company is folding risk assessment into existing product teams.
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