Former OpenAI Safety Chief Andrea Vallone Joins Anthropic Amid AI Safety Concerns

Jan 16, 2026
The Verge
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Summary

Former OpenAI safety chief Andrea Vallone joins Anthropic's alignment team, reuniting with ex-OpenAI safety lead Jan Leike who departed citing concerns that safety took a backseat to product development at the ChatGPT maker.

Key Points

  • Andrea Vallone, OpenAI's former head of safety research focused on mental health responses in AI chatbots, joins Anthropic's alignment team
  • Vallone previously led research on how AI models should respond to users showing emotional over-reliance or mental health distress, building OpenAI's model policy research team over three years
  • She joins former OpenAI safety lead Jan Leike at Anthropic, who left OpenAI in May 2024 citing concerns that safety had taken a backseat to product development

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