Paul Christiano, one of the most influential researchers in AI alignment, has been appointed to the board of the OpenAI Foundation. It’s a homecoming of sorts: Christiano spent four years at OpenAI from 2017 to 2021, where he led the language model alignment team and helped develop reinforcement learning from human feedback, the technique that made ChatGPT possible.
Who is Paul Christiano
After leaving OpenAI in 2021, Christiano founded the Alignment Research Center (ARC), an independent research organization focused on the technical challenges of making advanced AI systems safe. He also held senior roles at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the US AI Safety Institute, giving him a rare combination of research depth and policy experience.
The Foundation’s evolving role
The OpenAI Foundation itself is a relatively new entity, born out of OpenAI’s major recapitalization in late 2025. That restructuring transformed the original nonprofit framework into the Foundation, which now holds an equity stake of approximately 26% in OpenAI Group PBC. At post-recapitalization valuations, that stake is worth roughly $130 billion.
