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OpenAI Chief Futurist Joshua Achiam to Leave Company Later This Month
Joshua Achiam notified OpenAI colleagues Tuesday that he will depart later this month after nearly nine years. His exit follows multiple team reorganizations and prior departures of safety-focused researchers.
Jul 7, 5:30 PM·1m read1 source
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OpenAI chief futurist Joshua Achiam notified colleagues on Tuesday that he will leave the company later this month. Wired reported that Achiam has worked at OpenAI for nearly nine years and previously led a team focused on upholding the organization's nonprofit mission. Achiam told staff his departure was not driven by any specific reason but had been under consideration for some time.
He added that he believes a world of peace and prosperity is achievable and that he will continue collaborating on that vision. Achiam’s role sat at the intersection of AI safety and policy teams, where he studied potential harms and benefits of artificial intelligence. He worked with Global Affairs Chief Chris Lehane to advocate for government regulations aligned with OpenAI’s mission.
OpenAI has not announced whether anyone will fill the position. The company reorganized its safety, product, and research teams multiple times after ChatGPT launched in 2022. In 2024 it formed a mission alignment team led by Achiam, which was disbanded in February.
Achiam then took the chief futurist title. Dean Ball started this week as head of strategic futures and will briefly overlap with Achiam. Several other safety-focused leaders have left OpenAI in recent years.
Jan Leike departed for Anthropic in 2024 after co-leading the Superalignment team. Miles Brundage and Steven Adler also left in 2024 to found nonprofits. Andrea Vallone, who researched ChatGPT responses to users in distress, joined Anthropic at the end of 2025.
