OpenAI’s chief futurist, Joshua Achiam, notified colleagues on Tuesday that he will exit the company later this month, ending a tenure that began with an internship in 2017. The announcement, confirmed by internal memo obtained by WIRED, comes after almost nine years of work that spanned research, safety, and policy coordination.
Achiam’s note to staff emphasized that his departure was not triggered by any particular event. “The world is in on the secret now and it feels possible to work on the mission from outside the walls of a frontier lab,” he wrote, adding that he remains committed to the vision of peace, unprecedented prosperity, and limitless scientific possibilities.
Since ChatGPT’s launch in 2022, OpenAI has repeatedly reshuffled its safety, product, and research groups to keep pace with rapid growth. In 2024 the company created a “mission alignment team” led by Achiam, tasked with safeguarding the organization’s nonprofit roots. That unit was dissolved in February, after which Achiam assumed the title of chief futurist, a role that straddles the AI‑safety and policy divisions.
During the past year, OpenAI has intensified collaboration between its research and policy arms, seeking to anticipate regulatory needs and set industry standards. Achiam worked closely with senior leaders, including global affairs chief Chris Lehane, to promote government regulations aligned with the company’s broader mission of ensuring artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.
The departure adds to a growing roster of safety‑focused exits as the company prepares for an IPO. Jan Leike, a co‑lead of the Superalignment team, left for Anthropic in 2024. Earlier that year, policy research head Miles Brundage and dangerous‑capabilities researcher Steven Adler departed to launch nonprofits advocating for stricter safety standards. Andrea Vallone, who oversaw research on ChatGPT’s responses to users in distress, exited for Anthropic at the end of 2025.
Achiam’s own career at OpenAI began as an intern, eventually evolving into a research scientist dedicated to AI safety. Inside the organization, he earned a reputation as a staunch defender of the lab’s safety‑first ethos, though his occasional critiques of the broader AI‑safety community sparked debate.
His public profile includes a memorable moment in federal court when he interrupted Elon Musk’s closing remarks during the Musk‑Altman trial, questioning the billionaire’s plan to develop AGI at Tesla. Musk’s retort—calling Achiam a “jackass”—was later commemorated with a gold‑donkey statue presented by Dario Amodei, now CEO of Anthropic, and David Luan, head of Amazon’s AGI lab.
OpenAI has not announced who will fill the chief futurist role. The company’s leadership says the transition will be managed internally, but the move underscores the challenges of retaining top talent amid a shifting regulatory and market environment.
As OpenAI looks ahead to a public listing, Achiam’s exit highlights the delicate balance the firm must strike between rapid innovation and the responsibility to steer powerful technology toward societal benefit.
Este artículo fue escrito con la asistencia de IA.
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