OpenAI Hires Dylan Scandinaro as Head of Preparedness

OpenAI appointed Dylan Scandinaro as its new Head of Preparedness to lead efforts in preparing for and mitigating severe risks linked to artificial general intelligence (AGI) and powerful AI models. The company poached Scandinaro from competitor Anthropic, where he previously served as an AGI safety researcher.

CEO Sam Altman announced the hire via X, describing Scandinaro as the best candidate he had met for the role. The position includes a salary of up to $555,000 plus equity. Scandinaro, who also brings experience from Google DeepMind and Unity Technologies, highlighted the urgency of the mission given that AI is advancing rapidly.

Scandinaro noted that while the potential benefits of these technologies are great, they are accompanied by risks of extreme and even irrecoverable harm. This appointment signals a push by the organization to strengthen its safety frameworks as it moves toward the deployment of increasingly powerful models.