OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced on Tuesday that Aleksander Madry, the company’s AI safety leader, is embarking on a new and significant research project. As a result, OpenAI is reorganizing its preparedness team.
In a post on X, Altman noted that Madry is focusing on this new project while executives Joaquin Quinonero Candela and Lilian Weng will temporarily lead the preparedness team. This team is responsible for assessing the readiness of OpenAI’s AI models for artificial general intelligence. A spokesperson for OpenAI added that Madry will assume a more prominent role within the research organization as part of this transition.
Madry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Altman mentioned in his post that Joaquin and Lilian’s leadership of the preparedness team is part of an effort to consolidate OpenAI’s safety work.
The Information, which first reported on Madry’s move, indicated that researcher Tejal Patwardhan will handle much of the team’s responsibilities.
These changes come as OpenAI’s chatbots, which can engage in human-like conversations and generate multimedia content from text prompts, have become more advanced and raised safety concerns. Earlier this year, the Microsoft-backed company established a Safety and Security Committee, led by board members including Altman, in preparation for training its next AI model.
