---
id: "2024-05-17-leike-resigns-superalignment-disbanded"
url: "https://postcutoff.com/e/2024-05-17-leike-resigns-superalignment-disbanded/"
as_of: "2026-11-13T13:49:00+01:00"
date: "2024-05-17"
date_precision: day
category: policy-safety
importance: 4
confidence: high
status: [Confirmed]
sources: 6
editor: human editor
human_review: null
version: "2026-10-04"
---

As of: 2026-11-13 13:49 CET.
Researched and written by AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code), with a human editor. How we work: https://postcutoff.com/about/
Canonical page: https://postcutoff.com/e/2024-05-17-leike-resigns-superalignment-disbanded/

# Jan Leike resigns, saying OpenAI's safety culture 'has taken a backseat to shiny products'

Full title: Jan Leike resigns, saying OpenAI's safety culture 'has taken a backseat to shiny products'; Superalignment team dissolved

In mid-May 2024 both leads of OpenAI's Superalignment team left: chief scientist Ilya Sutskever announced his departure on May 14 and Jan Leike posted 'I resigned' hours later. On May 17 Leike explained in an X thread that 'safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products' and that his team had struggled for compute. OpenAI then dissolved the team, which had been promised 20% of its compute in July 2023.

## Key facts
- Sutskever announced his departure on X on May 14, 2024; Leike posted 'I resigned' on May 15 (UTC)
- Leike's May 17 thread: 'Yesterday was my last day as head of alignment, superalignment lead, and executive @OpenAI'; he said he had 'reached a breaking point' over core priorities
- 'Over the past years, safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products'; 'OpenAI must become a safety-first AGI company'
- Superalignment had been announced July 5, 2023 with 20% of OpenAI's secured compute over four years; the team was dissolved (Wired, CNBC, May 17, 2024)
- Leike joined Anthropic later in May 2024

## What happened

Six months after the November 2023 board crisis, the two people leading OpenAI's long-term alignment effort left within days of each other. Leike's public thread said his team had been 'sailing against the wind' and short on compute. OpenAI folded the remaining researchers into other teams. Around the same time, reports on OpenAI's restrictive departure agreements (non-disparagement terms tied to equity) caused further controversy.

## Why it matters

It was the defining 'safety researchers leave a frontier lab' moment of 2024. It led directly to the 'Right to Warn' letter and remains a reference point for later resignations over safety, such as Jacob Coxon's from Anthropic in September 2026.

## Your AI and this story

- GPT-6 Astra (training cutoff April 2026): in its training data
- Claude Opus 5.5 (training cutoff June 2026): in its training data
- Gemini 4 Hydrogen (training cutoff March 2026): in its training data
- Grok 4.7 (training cutoff May 2026): in its training data

## Sources

1. [Jan Leike on X: resignation thread](https://x.com/janleike/status/1791498174659715494) (x.com, official)
2. [Jan Leike on X: 'I resigned'](https://x.com/janleike/status/1790603862132596961) (x.com, official)
3. [Ilya Sutskever on X: leaving OpenAI](https://x.com/ilyasut/status/1790517455628198322) (x.com, official)
4. [OpenAI: Introducing Superalignment (July 2023)](https://openai.com/index/introducing-superalignment/) (openai.com, official)
5. [CNBC: OpenAI dissolves Superalignment AI safety team](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/17/openai-superalignment-sutskever-leike.html) (cnbc.com, press)
6. [Wired: OpenAI's long-term AI risk team has disbanded](https://www.wired.com/story/openai-superalignment-team-disbanded/) (wired.com, press)

## Changes

- 2026-09-29 (filed): Created (primary source checked)

## Related

- 2024-06-04: [Leopold Aschenbrenner publishes "Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead"](https://postcutoff.com/e/2024-06-04-aschenbrenner-situational-awareness/index.md)
- 2024-06-04: ["A Right to Warn about Advanced AI"](https://postcutoff.com/e/2024-06-04-right-to-warn-letter/index.md)
- 2023-11-17: [OpenAI's board fires and then reinstates Sam Altman](https://postcutoff.com/e/2023-11-17-openai-board-crisis/index.md)
- People: [Ilya Sutskever](https://postcutoff.com/person/ilya-sutskever/), [Jacob Coxon](https://postcutoff.com/person/jacob-coxon/), [Jan Leike](https://postcutoff.com/person/jan-leike/)
- Archived: 3 posts, listed in https://postcutoff.com/e/2024-05-17-leike-resigns-superalignment-disbanded/index.json