# OpenAI Restructures Safety Teams Amid Development Slowdown

> OpenAI has dissolved its preparedness team, the group charged with assessing catastrophic risks from its most powerful systems, folding those responsibilities into existing teams in July 2026. The reshuffle comes alongside senior departures, including ethics lead Chloe Bakalar and chief futurist Josh Achiam, and against the backdrop of the company streamlining itself for a possible IPO. OpenAI frames the change as integration rather than retreat, arguing that baking safety directly into product development beats keeping it in a standalone unit. Critics will read it differently, since dedicated risk teams exist precisely so safety is not subordinated to shipping schedules, and disbanding one while prepping for public markets is uncomfortable timing. Either way, it is another data point in an industry-wide pattern of safety functions being reorganized just as the systems they watch grow more capable.

_Section: [Daily AI Updates](https://www.wortins.com/daily-ai) · Source: The Next Web · Published Friday, August 28, 2026_

## Wortins' read

OpenAI has dissolved its preparedness team, the group charged with assessing catastrophic risks from its most powerful systems, folding those responsibilities into existing teams in July 2026. The reshuffle comes alongside senior departures, including ethics lead Chloe Bakalar and chief futurist Josh Achiam, and against the backdrop of the company streamlining itself for a possible IPO. OpenAI frames the change as integration rather than retreat, arguing that baking safety directly into product development beats keeping it in a standalone unit. Critics will read it differently, since dedicated risk teams exist precisely so safety is not subordinated to shipping schedules, and disbanding one while prepping for public markets is uncomfortable timing. Either way, it is another data point in an industry-wide pattern of safety functions being reorganized just as the systems they watch grow more capable.

## Source

[Read the full story at The Next Web](https://thenextweb.com/news/openai-preparedness-team-disbanded-ipo-streamlining)

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