Joshua Achiam, OpenAI’s chief futurist, notified colleagues in July 2026 that he will leave the company later this month after nearly nine years. Achiam told staff his departure was not driven by any specific reason, but was something he had been considering for some time.
“The world is in on the secret now and it feels possible to work on the mission from outside the walls of a frontier lab,” Achiam wrote in a note to staff obtained by WIRED. “Whatever I do next, I will continue to work with you on making this vision real.”
Achiam joined OpenAI as an intern in 2017 and became a research scientist focused on AI safety. His role as chief futurist sat at the intersection of the company’s AI safety and policy teams, studying the potential harms and benefits of artificial intelligence and working with senior leaders — including global affairs chief Chris Lehane — to advocate for government regulations aligned with OpenAI’s mission. He previously led the company’s “mission alignment team,” formed in 2024 to uphold that mission, before OpenAI disbanded the group in February and appointed him chief futurist.
OpenAI has not announced whether anyone will fill Achiam’s role. Former White House AI adviser Dean Ball joined the company this week as head of strategic futures and will briefly overlap with Achiam.
Achiam’s departure continues a pattern of safety-focused exits at OpenAI. Jan Leike, who co-led the Superalignment team, left for Anthropic in 2024. That same year, head of policy research Miles Brundage and dangerous-capabilities researcher Steven Adler both departed to found AI safety nonprofits. Researcher Andrea Vallone left for Anthropic at the end of 2025.
Achiam also gained public attention earlier in 2026 when he testified in federal court during the Musk v. Altman trial, recounting how he interrupted Elon Musk’s farewell speech at OpenAI in 2018 to raise safety concerns about Musk’s plan to develop AGI at Tesla. Musk allegedly called him a “jackass” — a moment that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Amazon AGI lab head David Luan later commemorated with a golden donkey statue inscribed with the words, “Never stop being a jackass for safety.”
Source: WIRED