OpenAI has disbanded its dedicated Preparedness team, redistributing safety and frontier-risk evaluation responsibilities across individual functional units, according to reporting by the Financial Times and The Verge.
The Preparedness team was established in late 2023 to evaluate and mitigate catastrophic risks associated with frontier AI models, focusing on cybersecurity exploits, chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, and autonomous model behavior. Under the new organizational structure, domain-specific safety evaluations will be absorbed directly into existing operational and engineering teams.
Organizational Restructuring and Key Transitions
Dylan Scandinaro, who joined OpenAI from Anthropic in February to lead the Preparedness team, will transition to a dedicated research role examining the implications and boundaries of recursive self-improving AI systems.
The restructuring follows several high-profile departures across OpenAI's safety and governance hierarchy in recent months, including ethics lead Chloé Bakalar, chief futurist Josh Achiam, and head of safety systems Johannes Heidecke.
Evolution of Safety Governance at OpenAI
The dissolution of the Preparedness team represents the latest phase in OpenAI's shift away from centralized, research-oriented safety groups toward product-integrated compliance.
- Superalignment Dissolution (May 2024): The 20% compute-dedicated long-term alignment team co-led by Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike was dissolved following key resignations.
- AGI Readiness Reorganization: Long-term existential risk research units were gradually folded into operational divisions.
- Preparedness Redistribution (July-August 2026): Threat modeling for cyber and biosecurity is now handled as part of standard pre-deployment validation pipelines within product lines.
The operational consolidation comes as OpenAI streamlines its corporate structure and commercial operations ahead of an anticipated initial public offering.
