OpenAI Restructures Safety Teams, Announces Next Model Completion as CEO Altman Shifts Focus

OpenAI is undergoing significant organizational changes as CEO Sam Altman announced the completion of pretraining for the company's next flagship model, while simultaneously restructuring key teams and appointing new leadership for critical initiatives.

The most notable change involves OpenAI's safety and security teams. Altman has moved the Safety team to Research and the Security team to Scaling, signaling a strategic shift in how the company approaches these critical functions. This reorganization comes as Altman himself is ceding direct oversight of these teams to focus on other priorities including fundraising, supply chain management, and building data centers at scale.

In a major leadership appointment, Fidji Simo has been named CEO of "AGI Deployment," a new role that encompasses the rollout and implementation of artificial general intelligence technologies. Simo, who previously served as CEO of Instacart, brings extensive experience in scaling technology platforms to her new position at OpenAI.

These organizational changes occur alongside product strategy shifts. OpenAI plans to discontinue several products that use its Sora models, including the consumer app, a Sora version for developers, and a video feature inside ChatGPT. The company released Sora to great fanfare last year, but appears to be pivoting away from these specific implementations.

The timing of these announcements is particularly interesting given recent developments. Just a day after OpenAI posted a blog on Sora safety standards, the company decided to end Sora support. Additionally, Disney had been working with OpenAI on a project linked to Sora as recently as Monday evening, though the companies have now ended their partnership. Disney had signed a December 2025 agreement to invest $1 billion and license some characters to Sora.

These changes reflect the rapid evolution of OpenAI's strategy as it moves from research breakthroughs to practical deployment of increasingly powerful AI systems. The restructuring of safety and security functions, combined with the appointment of dedicated leadership for AGI deployment, suggests the company is preparing for the next phase of AI development and commercialization.

Altman's shift in focus toward fundraising and infrastructure development indicates OpenAI's ambitions are scaling beyond just model development to encompass the entire ecosystem needed to support advanced AI systems at global scale.

The completion of pretraining for the next model represents a significant milestone, though details about the model's capabilities and release timeline remain limited. This development, combined with the organizational changes, points to a company in transition as it balances safety considerations with aggressive deployment strategies.

These moves come at a time when OpenAI faces increasing scrutiny over AI safety and the responsible development of increasingly powerful models. The restructuring of safety functions and the creation of dedicated AGI deployment leadership suggest the company is formalizing its approach to these challenges as it continues to push the boundaries of AI capabilities.