OpenAI names Josh Achiam its "chief futurist" after disbanding its mission alignment team

OpenAI has disbanded its mission alignment team, which was formed in September 2024 to help communicate OpenAI's mission and the impact of AI to both employees and the public, Platformer has confirmed. While at a glance this may sound superficial, the mission alignment team was tasked with ensuring some aspects of safe and trustworthy AI development by, for instance, ensuring that internal operations were consistent with OpenAI's proclaimed mission to ensure that AGI benefits everyone.

Josh Achiam, who led the six-to-seven-person team, has been reassigned as OpenAI's "chief futurist." In a Wednesday blog post, Achiam explained his new role: "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."

The disbanded team was described by OpenAI as "a support function to help employees and the public understand our mission and the impact of AI." It was first made public in September 2024, immediately following the unexpected departure of Mira Murati, Bob McGrew and Barret Zoph (who has since returned to OpenAI). According to an OpenAI spokesperson, mission alignment team members have been reassigned to different roles performing similar work, though specific assignments weren't disclosed.

OpenAI attributed the change to routine reorganizations within a fast-moving company. However, this marks the second mission-focused team dissolution in recent years—the "superalignment team," which studied long-term existential AI threats, was disbanded in 2024 after forming in 2023.

Achiam will collaborate with OpenAI physicist Jason Pruet in his new chief futurist role, though it's unclear whether he'll lead a new team.