OpenAI Denies Disbanding Its AI Risk Team

Hyderabad: Reports emerged that OpenAI has disbanded its centralised Preparedness team, which was tasked with evaluating whether its Artificial Intelligence (AI) models could pose severe or catastrophic risks.

According to a report by the Financial Times, the team was dissolved last month, with senior employees shifted to other existing teams to handle preparedness in areas like cyber and bio threats.

However, OpenAI has denied these claims. "We have not disbanded the Preparedness team," an OpenAI spokesperson told ETV Bharat. "We have strong research leaders across cybersecurity, biological and chemical, and AI self-improvement capabilities, all reporting to Saachi Jain, our head of safety."

According to Financial Times, ethics chief Chloe Bakalar, chief futurist Joshua Achiam, and safety leader Johannes Heidecke have all recently left the company, drawing attention both internally and across the wider technology industry.

Denise Dresser, who was appointed chief revenue officer in December, announced this week that she is leaving, after serving in the role for less than a year.

Dresser follows former chief operating officer Brad Lightcap, who also departed recently. Fidi Simo stepped back from her full-time position earlier this year; she was once regarded as chief executive officer Sam Altman's second-in-command after running the applications business. She now serves in a part-time advisory role in the AI company. Several other senior figures, including Kevin Weil and Srinivas Narayanan, have similarly left or shifted positions.

Some employees view the repeated reshuffles as a sign of instability. This comes at a critical moment when OpenAI prepares for an IPO, which could value the company at up to $1 trillion. The IPO could arrive in 2027, which was earlier expected this year.

OpenAI recently completed a share buyback worth nearly $7 billion, valuing it at $852 billion.

Pressure from Anthropic grows

While OpenAI manages its internal reorganisation, Anthropic is putting pressure on the company in the competitive landscape. People familiar with the matter said OpenAI's annual revenue has grown from $24 billion at the end of last year to about $40 billion this month. Much of the growth comes after the release of GPT-5.6 five weeks ago.

However, Anthropic has reportedly grown even faster, climbing from $9 billion in annual revenue at the end of 2025 to $47 billion in May. The report said the Dario-led company has continued at a similar pace since.