- Published on
OpenAI’s Chief Futurist Is Leaving the Company
- Authors
- Name
- DeepHorus
OpenAI’s chief futurist, Joshua Achiam, announced his departure from the company on Tuesday after nearly nine years, according to a note to staff obtained by WIRED. Achiam, who previously led the organization’s mission alignment team, informed colleagues that his exit was not driven by any specific event but was something he had been considering for some time. His role involved bridging AI safety and policy, advocating for government regulations aligned with OpenAI’s mission to ensure artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.
Achiam joined OpenAI in 2017 as an intern and later became a research scientist focused on AI safety. He was known internally as a staunch defender of the company’s safety mission, though he occasionally drew controversy for critiquing the broader AI safety community. In 2024, he was appointed chief futurist after the dissolution of his mission alignment team, which had been formed to uphold the company’s nonprofit goals.
The departure marks the latest in a series of safety-focused exits from OpenAI as the company prepares to go public. Jan Leike, co-leader of the Superalignment team, left for Anthropic in 2024. That same year, policy research head Miles Brundage and dangerous capabilities researcher Steven Adler departed to found nonprofits advocating for strong AI safety standards. Andrea Vallone, who led research on ChatGPT’s mental health responses, joined Anthropic in late 2025.
OpenAI has reorganized its safety, product, and research teams multiple times since ChatGPT’s launch in 2022, transitioning from a small research lab into a major tech corporation. As part of efforts to align AI research with policy, researchers like Boaz Barak, Noam Brown, and Adrien Ecoffet have become more involved in policy work. Former White House AI adviser Dean Ball started at OpenAI this week as head of strategic futures, briefly overlapping with Achiam.
In his farewell note, Achiam stated, “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 expressed belief in achieving a world of peace and unprecedented prosperity through continued collaboration. OpenAI has not yet announced a replacement for Achiam’s role.
Achiam’s legacy includes a notable incident in 2018 when he interrupted Elon Musk’s farewell speech, warning that Musk’s AGI plans at Tesla could compromise safety. Musk reportedly called him a “jackass,” prompting a commemorative golden donkey statue from Dario Amodei and David Luan, inscribed with “Never stop being a jackass for safety.” As the AI industry evolves, Achiam’s departure signals ongoing tensions between safety advocacy and commercial acceleration.
