OpenAI has disbanded the Mission Alignment team, a group created to help employees and the public understand the company's stated aim of ensuring that artificial general intelligence benefits humanity. Its six or seven members have been reassigned, while team leader Josh Achiam has become OpenAI's chief futurist, TechCrunch reported on February 11th. The company described the change as a routine reorganization and said the work continues across the organization.

A mission becomes easier to move when it is spread across an institution. A named team gives a promise a room, a budget, and people whose jobs are to repeat its meaning to those inside and outside the company. Reassigning those people preserves the language while removing the address where the language could be questioned. OpenAI previously disbanded its Superalignment team, which studied long-term existential risks, in 2024. The new arrangement leaves safety and public explanation attached to a general corporate function, while the former team leader studies how the world will change in response to AI and AGI. The mission remains in the statement. Its staff no longer has a single office from which to answer for it.