Dispatch
OpenAI quietly disbanded its preparedness team at the end of July, splitting catastrophic-risk work across other groups
The Financial Times reported over the weekend that OpenAI dissolved the preparedness team — the unit that assessed whether frontier models posed serious bio, cyber and rogue-system risks — at the end of July 2026, distributing individual framework domains to existing teams. OpenAI framed it as part of a 'streamlining process' ahead of its expected IPO, after Altman told staff to cut 'side quests' and focus on core ChatGPT. This is the third safety-focused group shut in roughly two years, after AGI Readiness (2024) and Mission Alignment (February 2026), and follows the departures of ethics lead Chloé Bakalar and safety head Johannes Heidecke.
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