OpenAI has dissolved a specialized team that was tasked with—in the company’s own words—guaranteeing its AI systems remain “safe, trustworthy, and consistently aligned with human values.” Concurrently, the former head of that team has transitioned into a newly created position as the organization’s “chief futurist.”

The disbanded group, which seems to have been established in September 2024, served as the startup’s internal alignment unit. Alignment is a wide-ranging discipline in the AI field aimed at making sure artificial intelligence operates in harmony with human interests. A statement from OpenAI’s Alignment Research blog emphasizes, “We want these systems to consistently follow human intent in complex, real-world scenarios and adversarial conditions, avoid catastrophic behavior, and remain controllable, auditable, and aligned with human values.” Similarly, an OpenAI job listing for the Alignment team characterized it as concentrating on AI research that develops “methodologies that enable AI to robustly follow human intent across a wide range of scenarios, including those that are adversarial or high-stakes.”

In a blog post published on Wednesday, Josh Achiam, the previous leader of OpenAI’s Alignment team, outlined his new responsibilities as Chief Futurist. Achiam wrote, “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.” He added that in this capacity he will be working alongside Jason Pruet, a physicist from OpenAI’s technical staff.

An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed that the remaining members of the Alignment team—a group of six or seven individuals—have since been reassigned to various departments within the company. While the spokesperson could not specify exactly where each person was placed, they indicated that the members are continuing with comparable work in their new roles. It remains uncertain whether Achiam will lead a new team as part of his “futurist” duties.

The spokesperson explained that the team’s dissolution resulted from the kind of routine restructuring common in a rapidly evolving company. Previously, OpenAI maintained a “superalignment team” formed in 2023 to examine long-term existential risks from AI, but that unit was also disbanded in 2024.

Achiam’s personal website still identifies him as head of Mission Alignment at OpenAI and notes his focus on ensuring the “long-term future of humanity is good.” His LinkedIn profile shows he held the role of Head of Mission Alignment starting in September 2024.