Aleksander Madry returns to OpenAI to work with chief scientist Jakub Pachocki on the safety and security challenges of more capable AI
Personal update: Turns out that what I thought was leaving OpenAI became more of a sabbatical. When I left a few months ago, I felt that the most important thing to focus on was making AI more useful to people. But we’ve since entered a different regime of AI progress. One in which getting the safety and security challenges of increasingly capable AI right has to become a central priority. So I’ll be returning to OpenAI, joining @merettm to help chart a path through these challenges. There’s much work to do, so let’s get going.
Context
A former head of preparedness coming back to focus on safety suggests OpenAI's leadership sees the risks of its newest models as a more central problem than a few months ago.
Madry is an MIT professor on leave who served as OpenAI's head of preparedness before being reassigned to work on AI reasoning, according to Benzinga, and he announced he was leaving OpenAI in May. Jakub Pachocki, who posts as merettm, is OpenAI's chief scientist.
Deep dive
On October 19, Aleksander Madry posted that what he thought was leaving OpenAI turned out to be more of a sabbatical. He wrote that when he left a few months ago, he felt the most important thing was making AI more useful to people, but that the field has since entered a different regime of AI progress, one in which getting the safety and security challenges of increasingly capable AI right has to become a central priority. He said he will return to OpenAI, joining Jakub Pachocki to help chart a path through these challenges.
Pachocki quoted the post, writing that as AI becomes more capable he is focused on questions around the pace and implications of progress and how they should inform the strategy of OpenAI and the wider field. He said he asked Madry to come back to work with him on these topics and values his judgment.
Benzinga reported that Madry joined OpenAI in 2024 as head of preparedness, a role focused on identifying and addressing potentially catastrophic risks from advanced models, and that when he left in May he said he wanted to focus on how AI could transform the economy. Before OpenAI he directed MIT's Center for Deployable Machine Learning.
Neither post gives Madry a title or describes a specific team or project.
What to expect next
Watch for a title or team announcement that shows how much authority Madry will have, and whether OpenAI publishes new safety or preparedness work under him and Pachocki. His phrase about a different regime of AI progress invites questions about what OpenAI has seen internally, so watch whether the company explains it. The return also lands as OpenAI is reported to be working through safety and security concerns about its next flagship model.