OpenAI has announced the appointment of Paul Christiano to the OpenAI Foundation Board. On the OpenAI Group PBC Board, he will serve as a non-voting observer.
Member of the Safety and Security Committee
Paul will also join the Foundation’s Safety and Security Committee (SSC), working alongside the committee chair, Zico Kolter. The SSC provides governance over safety and security practices across all of OpenAI, including OpenAI Group PBC.
Professional background
Paul Christiano brings government experience from work at the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he serves as a Senior Technical Advisor 1. At CAISI and its predecessor, the U.S. AI Safety Institute, he has been involved in evaluating frontier AI models — including capabilities with national security implications — and in developing approaches to mitigate related safety and security risks.
He is also the founder of the Alignment Research Center (ARC), a nonprofit research organization focused on aligning advanced AI systems with human interests. From 2017 to 2021, Paul led alignment research at OpenAI and contributed foundational work on reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF).
Why this matters
As AI enters a new era of capability, ensuring strong safety, security, alignment, and governance becomes increasingly important. Throughout his career in AI alignment research, Paul has taken seriously the possibility that advanced AI could pose catastrophic risks and has argued that developers must prepare before systems reach more dangerous capability levels. OpenAI says the Foundation’s governance is strengthened by voices willing to challenge prevailing assumptions and help improve the evidence, safeguards, and accountability behind critical decisions.
Context: recapitalization and oversight
Paul’s appointment builds on the governance framework established through OpenAI’s recapitalization in October 2025. That framework was further strengthened through reviews conducted over the course of a year by the California Attorney General and the Delaware Attorney General, and the commitments made in connection with those reviews.
The OpenAI Foundation’s role
The OpenAI Foundation is a charitable organization dedicated to ensuring AI benefits all of humanity. As a separate nonprofit, the Foundation conducts its own charitable operations while maintaining control of, and a significant equity stake in, OpenAI Group PBC. The Foundation supports initiatives that advance scientific discovery, strengthen civil society, and build resilience through responsible AI via grants, partnerships, and other philanthropic activities.
Recusal from OpenAI matters and evaluations
As a Senior Technical Advisor, Paul will recuse himself from all OpenAI-related matters as well as from all model evaluations.
