OpenAI Chief Futurist Joshua Achiam leaves company after 9 years

OpenAI's Chief Futurist, Joshua Achiam, has announced that he is leaving the company later this month. Achiam joined OpenAI as an intern in 2017 and recently led its mission alignment team, which was disbanded in February.

Achiam stated his departure was not motivated by a specific reason but noted that it is now possible to work on AI safety from outside frontier labs. His departure follows other high-profile safety exits, including Jan Leike, Miles Brundage, and Andrea Vallone.

Achiam made headlines during the Musk v. Altman trial, testifying about interrupting Elon Musk's parting speech in 2018 over safety concerns. Following the incident, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Amazon AGI head David Luan gifted Achiam a golden donkey statue inscribed "Never stop being a jackass for safety."