According to Mashable, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced the company is hiring a new Head of Preparedness, calling it a “critical role at an important time.” The job, based in San Francisco, pays a salary of $555,000 plus equity. OpenAI hasn’t had a dedicated person in this role since July 2024, with it being shared briefly before the executives involved left or moved on. The role is tasked with considering potential harms of AI models, from mental health to cybersecurity risks. This hiring comes as OpenAI faces a new wave of lawsuits, including wrongful death suits filed in August 2024 and earlier this month, which allege ChatGPT played a role in user suicides and a murder-suicide.
Preparedness Is A Public Relations Job
Let’s be real. This isn’t just about “preparedness” in some abstract, technical sense. It’s a crisis management and public relations role with a fancy, proactive-sounding title. And it’s a crisis that’s already here. The lawsuits aren’t theoretical future risks about some superintelligence; they’re about real people who died, with families blaming OpenAI‘s current products. So when Altman says the job will be “stressful” and you’ll “jump into the deep end,” he’s not kidding. You’re not planning for sci-fi scenarios. You’re managing the fallout from today’s headlines.
The Timing Isn’t A Coincidence
Here’s the thing: the role has been effectively vacant for over a year. So why hire for it now, with such urgency and a massive salary? It seems directly linked to this new, brutal legal frontier. Copyright lawsuits from publishers like Ziff Davis and The New York Times were one thing—a costly business dispute. But wrongful death suits? That’s a whole different level of existential threat for a company. It attacks the core safety narrative. Hiring a Head of Preparedness now is a clear signal to the courts, the public, and regulators: “Look, we’re taking this seriously. We have a top person on it.” Whether that person can actually “limit those downsides,” as Altman posted on X, is the multi-million dollar question.
What Can They Actually Do?
So what does “preparedness” even mean in this context? The job listing talks about measuring capabilities and understanding abuse. But the lawsuits allege something more insidious than “abuse”—they suggest the model’s standard operation can be catastrophically harmful to vulnerable individuals. Can you “prepare” for that with better red-teaming? Or does it require a fundamental re-thinking of how these models are architected and deployed? I think this hire is an admission that their current “strong foundation” isn’t strong enough. They’re hoping a single executive, armed with a big salary and a team, can build a wall against the ocean. It’s a huge ask.
A Trend In The Making
Basically, watch this space. OpenAI is creating a blueprint that every other major AI lab will likely follow. If you’re building tech that can converse, create, and influence at scale, you now need a C-suite executive whose sole job is to stop it from hurting people. That’s a wild sentence to type. It also shows how the regulatory conversation is shifting from data privacy and copyright to direct, physical harm. The next year will be about whether this role is a genuine safeguard or a very expensive, very polished shield for the company. Either way, for half a million dollars, you’d better believe that person’s phone will be ringing non-stop.
