OpenAI’s Chief Futurist Is Leaving the Company

OpenAI’s main futurist, Joshua Achiam, notified colleagues connected Tuesday that helium is leaving the institution aboriginal this period aft astir 9 years, WIRED has learned. Achiam, who antecedently led a squad tasked with upholding the organization’s nonprofit mission, told OpenAI unit that his departure was not motivated by immoderate circumstantial reason, but was thing he’s been reasoning astir for a while.

“The satellite is successful connected the concealed present and it feels imaginable to enactment connected the ngo from extracurricular the walls of a frontier lab,” Achiam said successful a enactment to unit obtained by WIRED. “I judge we tin get to a satellite of peace, unprecedented prosperity, and unimaginable possibilities, societal and scientific. Whatever I bash next, I volition proceed to enactment with you connected making this imaginativeness real.”

OpenAI has not yet announced if anyone volition capable Achiam’s role, which sat astatine the intersection of the company’s AI information and argumentation teams, and progressive studying the imaginable harms and benefits caused by the emergence of artificial intelligence. Achiam worked with elder institution leaders, including planetary affairs main Chris Lehane, to advocator for authorities regulations aligned with OpenAI’s mission: to guarantee that AGI benefits each of humanity.

OpenAI has reorganized its safety, product, and probe teams galore times since ChatGPT launched successful 2022, aft which the institution grew rapidly from a tiny probe laboratory into a monolithic tech company. In 2024, OpenAI announced the enactment of a “mission alignment team” led by Achiam that was tasked with upholding the company’s mission. OpenAI disbanded the radical successful February and announced that Achiam would beryllium taking connected a caller relation arsenic main futurist.

In the past year, OpenAI has worked to span the spread betwixt its AI probe and argumentation teams arsenic portion of an effort to make rules and standards that expect wherever its exertion is headed. As the 2 departments began collaborating much closely, respective OpenAI researchers, including Boaz Barak, Noam Brown, and Adrien Ecoffet accidental they person go much progressive successful argumentation work.

Former White House AI advisor Dean Ball started astatine OpenAI this week arsenic the company's caput of strategical futures, and helium volition concisely overlap with Achiam. Ball is besides expected to enactment with researchers and argumentation leaders successful his role.

Achiam is the latest safety-focused person to depart OpenAI, joining a increasing database of exits arsenic the institution prepares to spell public. Jan Leike, who co-led OpenAI’s Superalignment squad researching however to support precocious AI models nether quality control, near to articulation Anthropic successful 2024.

That aforesaid year, caput of argumentation probe Miles Brundage and Steven Adler, who led probe connected unsafe capabilities of AI models, some departed OpenAI to recovered nonprofits that advocator for AI labs to adhere to beardown information and information standards. Andrea Vallone, who led OpenAI’s probe connected however ChatGPT should respond to users experiencing intelligence oregon affectional distress, near to articulation Leike’s squad astatine Anthropic astatine the extremity of 2025.

After joining OpenAI arsenic an intern successful 2017, Achiam went connected to go a probe idiosyncratic focused connected AI safety. He was known internally arsenic a stalwart defender of OpenAI’s safety-focused mission, but was besides arguable for his occasional criticisms of the broader AI information community.

Earlier this year, helium testified successful national tribunal that helium interrupted Elon Musk’s parting code erstwhile helium near OpenAI successful 2018, remarking that the then-billionaire’s program to make AGI astatine Tesla could travel astatine the disbursal of safety. Musk allegedly responded by calling Achiam a “jackass,” a infinitesimal that Dario Amodei (now the CEO of Anthropic) and David Luan (who went connected to go the caput of Amazon’s AGI lab) commemorated by gifting Achiam a statue of a aureate donkey’s rear end, inscribed with the words, “Never halt being a jackass for safety.”