OpenAI Dissolves Preparedness Safety Team Amidst Leadership Exodus
量子位 · wechat · 2026-08-17
OpenAI has dissolved its "Preparedness" team, responsible for assessing catastrophic risks from frontier models, stating safety work is now integrated into development. This follows the disbanding or restructuring of other key safety teams like Superalignment and AGIReadiness.
Preparedness Mandate:
- Track and prevent extreme risks like societal harm, bio-chem abuse, and large-scale manipulation.
- Established a "Preparedness Framework" rating model risks, restricting deployment to "medium" risk or below.
Recent Leadership Shakeups:
- Team lead Dylan Scandinaro has moved to a new role.
- Several executives, including Chief Ethics Officer Chloé Bakalar and Safety Systems Head Johannes Heidecke, have left.
- Founding member Scott Gray (GPU optimization expert) departed on August 15.
Internal Reaction: Employees express anxiety about safety standards, especially after the recent HuggingFace incident. While OpenAI claims this embeds safety closer to development, critics worry it eliminates independent veto power to accelerate commercialization.
Related event: OpenAI Dissolves Preparedness Team, Sparking Safety Concerns(11 posts)→
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