OpenAI has announced Significant changes to its security practices, including the establishment of a new independent oversight committee of the board of directors. This move comes with one notable change: CEO Sam Altman no longer serves on the security committee, marking a shift from the previous structure.
The newly formed Safety and Security Committee (SSC) will be chaired by Zico Kolter, head of the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University. Other key members include Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo, retired U.S. Army General Paul Nakasone, and Nicole Seligman, former executive vice president and general counsel at Sony Corporation.
This new committee replaces the previous Safety and Security Committee that was formed in June 2024, which included Altman among its members. The original committee was tasked with making recommendations on critical safety and security decisions for OpenAI projects and operations.
The SSC's responsibilities now go beyond recommendations. It will have the authority to oversee safety assessments for major model launches and exercise oversight over model launches. Crucially, the committee will have the power to delay a launch until safety concerns are adequately addressed.
This restructuring follows a period of scrutiny over OpenAI’s commitment to ai safety. The company has faced criticism in the past for the disbanding of its Superalignment team and the departure of key safety-focused personnel. Altman’s removal from the safety committee appears to be an attempt to address concerns about potential conflicts of interest in overseeing the company’s safety.
OpenAI’s latest security initiative also includes plans to improve security measures, increase transparency about its work, and collaborate with outside organizations. The company has already reached agreements with the ai Safety Institutes in the US and UK to collaborate on research into emerging ai security risks and standards for trustworthy ai.
