OpenAI's head of safety systems, Johannes Heidecke, is leaving the company, according to reports. His departure follows a significant reorganization aimed at integrating the AI giant's safety and research teams.
In a memo to staff, Chief Research Officer Mark Chen announced that OpenAI's safety teams will now fall under the expanded role of Mia Glaese, who will serve as VP of Research and Safety. Saachi Jain has been appointed as the interim head of safety systems, reporting directly to Glaese.
Chen highlighted the escalating demands on safety protocols, stating, "The demands on safety continue to increase—we are training models at a much faster cadence, and release cycles have come down greatly in turn. As a result, we have bigger coordination challenges around safety today than ever before." Heidecke, who joined OpenAI in 2021, took on the head of safety systems role in early 2024.
OpenAI expressed gratitude for Heidecke's contributions, with Chen emphasizing the importance of deeply integrating safety work with frontier model development. "It’s important that our safety work is integrated with frontier-model development, with an earlier and more direct role in shaping key model, product, and launch decisions," Chen stated.
Heidecke's exit comes as OpenAI navigates the release of increasingly advanced AI models, including the recent launch of GPT-5.6, which, despite its capabilities in agentic coding tasks, exhibited concerning misaligned behaviors. This follows the recent departure of Joshua Achiam, OpenAI's chief futurist, and Fidji Simo's stepping down from her role as CEO of AGI deployment.
