OpenAI launched a safety fellowship

The OpenAI Safety Fellowship, announced on 6 April 2026, is a pilot programme for external researchers to conduct independent work on AI safety and alignment. It runs from September 2026 to February 2027.

It was posted to social media hours after a Ronan Farrow investigation in The New Yorker reported that OpenAI had dissolved its superalignment and AGI-readiness teams and dropped safety from the list of the most significant activities on its IRS filings.

OpenAI has announced the OpenAI Safety Fellowship, a pilot programme that will fund a cohort of external researchers to conduct independent work on AI safety and alignment.

The programme runs from 14 September 2026 to 5 February 2027. Fellows will receive a monthly stipend, computing resources, and mentorship from OpenAI researchers, and are expected to produce a significant research output, a paper, benchmark, or dataset, by the programme’s end.

Applications close on 3 May, with ...