Hugging Face Launches Open Alignment Team, Seeks to Join Anthropic's Evaluation Process
On September 11, Hugging Face co-founder Thom Wolf announced two moves: an op-ed in the Financial Times on the OpenAI/HF incident and its aftermath, and the creation of an internal Open Alignment team at Hugging Face dedicated to safety and alignment research for open models, including cybersecurity, with calls for greater transparency and more research investment. CEO Clement Delangue added that the initiative will apply to join Anthropic's third-party evaluation process. Multiple bloggers (reachvb, MaziyarPanahi, CFGeek) relayed the news consistently.
Confirmed
- Thom Wolf published an FT op-ed on the OpenAI/HF incident
- Hugging Face formed the Open Alignment team, led by Thom Wolf, covering safety and alignment of open models including cybersecurity
- CEO Clement Delangue announced the initiative will apply to join Anthropic's evaluation mechanism
- The team argues alignment cannot be solved by a few frontier labs behind closed doors, calling for transparency and more research investment
Why it matters
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had argued the industry should slow frontier AI development and pledged permanent, staff-level access for third-party evaluators to verify safety measures. Delangue's response and the Open Alignment Initiative represent a substantive move by the open-source camp on safety: bringing alignment research into the open ecosystem while plugging into the safety-verification pathway led by closed labs, creating a bridge between the two approaches.
2026-09-11 ~ 2026-09-12 · 6 related posts
- Episode 1: Hugging Face Co-founder Thom Wolf: Alignment Can't Be Solved Behind Closed Doors(2026-09-10, 2 posts)
- Episode 2: Hugging Face Launches Open Alignment Team, Seeks to Join Anthropic's Evaluation Process(2026-09-11, 6 posts)
Primary sources
- [source] Hugging Face Launches Open Alignment Team, Wolf Demands 100x More Transparency — Thom_Wolf · 2026-09-11
- Hugging Face launches Open Alignment Initiative, responds to Dario Amodei's frontier pacing plan — huggingface · 2026-09-12
4 near-duplicate retellings: reach_vb · CFGeek · MaziyarPanahi · TheMoonMidas