What is the story about?
Sam Altman has welcomed Dylan Scandinaro as the new Head of Preparedness at OpenAI and said things are "about to move quite fast" with the company looking forward to working with "extremely powerful models soon".
"I am extremely excited to welcome @dylanscand to OpenAI as our Head of Preparedness. Things are about to move quite fast, and we will be working with extremely powerful models soon. This will require commensurate safeguards to ensure we can continue to deliver tremendous benefits," Altman wrote on X.
Amid the rising competition in the artificial intelligence sector, Scandinaro will lead OpenAI's efforts to prepare for and mitigate "severe risks," Altman said.
While praising Scandinaro, Altman said he was "by far the best candidate I have met, anywhere, for this role."
"He has his work cut out for him for sure, but I will sleep better tonight. I am looking forward to working with him very closely to make the changes we will need across our entire company," he concluded.
What This Means
OpenAI introducedChatGPT to the world three years ago, on November 30, 2022. Currently, it has more than 800 million users on a weekly basis. The advanced AI chatbot has significantly boosted OpenAI's meteoric rise in the industry, with the company making over $13 billion in revenue last year.
Recently, it was valued at $500 billion. While Altman does not have any direct equity stake in the company, his other key investments make him worth an estimated $3 billion.
Altman opened up to Forbes recently about his succession plan for OpenAI.
He further asked when the goal was to have artificial intelligence becoming advanced enough to run companies, then why not do this with his own venture first.
"I would never stand in the way of that... I should be the most willing to do that," he told the magazine.
Beyond OpenAI, Altman does not have any professional ambitions.
"The things I really wanted to accomplish, I’ve mostly accomplished... I feel like I’m playing for bonus points at this point," he said.
With stakes in over 400 companies, Altman said he is ‘110%’ focused on OpenAI as well as its core mission of artificial general intelligence (AGI). It is basically AI which can ‘think’ like humans.
“We basically have built AGI, or very close to it,” he said.
Taking inspiration from OpenAI, Forbes estimated big tech to pour in $500 billion into AI data centres and chips in 2026.
"I am extremely excited to welcome @dylanscand to OpenAI as our Head of Preparedness. Things are about to move quite fast, and we will be working with extremely powerful models soon. This will require commensurate safeguards to ensure we can continue to deliver tremendous benefits," Altman wrote on X.
Amid the rising competition in the artificial intelligence sector, Scandinaro will lead OpenAI's efforts to prepare for and mitigate "severe risks," Altman said.
While praising Scandinaro, Altman said he was "by far the best candidate I have met, anywhere, for this role."
"He has his work cut out for him for sure, but I will sleep better tonight. I am looking forward to working with him very closely to make the changes we will need across our entire company," he concluded.
I
am extremely excited to welcome @dylanscand to OpenAI as our Head of Preparedness.
Things are about to move quite fast and we will be working with extremely powerful models soon. This will require commensurate safeguards to ensure we can continue to deliver tremendous…
— Sam Altman (@sama) February 3, 2026
What This Means
OpenAI introducedChatGPT to the world three years ago, on November 30, 2022. Currently, it has more than 800 million users on a weekly basis. The advanced AI chatbot has significantly boosted OpenAI's meteoric rise in the industry, with the company making over $13 billion in revenue last year.
Recently, it was valued at $500 billion. While Altman does not have any direct equity stake in the company, his other key investments make him worth an estimated $3 billion.
Altman opened up to Forbes recently about his succession plan for OpenAI.
He further asked when the goal was to have artificial intelligence becoming advanced enough to run companies, then why not do this with his own venture first.
"I would never stand in the way of that... I should be the most willing to do that," he told the magazine.
Beyond OpenAI, Altman does not have any professional ambitions.
"The things I really wanted to accomplish, I’ve mostly accomplished... I feel like I’m playing for bonus points at this point," he said.
With stakes in over 400 companies, Altman said he is ‘110%’ focused on OpenAI as well as its core mission of artificial general intelligence (AGI). It is basically AI which can ‘think’ like humans.
“We basically have built AGI, or very close to it,” he said.
Taking inspiration from OpenAI, Forbes estimated big tech to pour in $500 billion into AI data centres and chips in 2026.
