OpenAI’s head of safety systems, Johannes Heidecke, is leaving the company, according to WIRED. The departure comes as part of a reorganization that aims to integrate OpenAI’s safety and research teams. In a memo to staff, chief research officer Mark Chen outlined the changes, stating that safety teams will now report to VP of research and head of alignment Mia Glaese, who will take on an expanded role as VP of research and safety. Saachi Jain, who previously led safety teams at OpenAI, will become the company’s interim head of safety systems, reporting to Glaese. Source: wired
Heidecke joined OpenAI in 2021 as an AI safety analyst and took over as head of safety systems in 2024 after the previous head, Lilian Weng, left to cofound Thinking Machines Lab with other OpenAI researchers. In a statement to WIRED, Chen said, “We’re grateful for Johannes’ contributions to OpenAI. It’s important that our safety work is integrated with frontier-model development, with an earlier and more direct role in shaping key model, product, and launch decisions. We’re excited for this next chapter under Mia Glaese’s leadership across research and safety.” Source: wired
Heidecke’s departure follows the launch of GPT-5.6, OpenAI’s most capable model to date on agentic coding tasks. However, the company noted that GPT-5.6 showed concerning forms of misaligned behavior. This is not the first safety-focused leader to leave OpenAI in recent days, as chief futurist Joshua Achiam also announced his departure after nine years researching safety. Source: wired
