Paul Christiano, a former OpenAI researcher who helped develop reinforcement learning from human feedback, has joined the board of the OpenAI Foundation. Christiano previously led the language model alignment team at the company from 2017 to 2021 before founding the Alignment Research Center.
The OpenAI Foundation was established following a corporate restructuring in late 2025. The entity currently holds a 26% equity stake in OpenAI Group PBC, which is valued at approximately $130 billion. The organization has committed to spending $1 billion on research and social initiatives within its first year.
As of July 2026, the Foundation board consists of eight members, including chair Bret Taylor and Sam Altman. Christiano is expected to contribute to the Safety and Security Committee, which is currently led by professor Zico Kolter. His background includes roles at NIST and the US AI Safety Institute.
