Jan Leike Joins Anthropic: What It Actually Meant

The quiet defection that changed the terms of the safety debate. Jan Leike, co-lead of OpenAI’s superalignment team, the researcher who spent three years trying to build a scientific framework for controlling AI systems smarter than humans, joined Anthropic on May 28th, 2024. He did not go quietly. Two weeks before he announced his new role, he posted a resignation letter on X that read, in part: “Safety culture and processes have taken a back seat to shiny products.” OpenAI dissolved the superalignment team.