‘Things to move fast’: Sam Altman hires ex- Anthropic engineer as OpenAI braces for ‘extremely powerful models’

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced on February 4 that the ChatGPT maker has hired Anthropic technical team member Dylan Scandinaro as its new Head of Provisioning. Altman said the company “will soon be working with extremely powerful models” and will need “proportional security measures.”

In a post on

He added: “Dylan will lead our efforts to prepare for and mitigate these serious risks. He is the best candidate I have ever encountered anywhere for this role. He certainly has his work cut out for him, but I will sleep better tonight. I look forward to working very closely with him to make the changes we will need across our entire company.”

Scandinaro, meanwhile, shared a separate update on X about his joining OpenAI, in which he discussed the “extreme and irreparable harm” associated with rapidly advancing AI models.

“AI is advancing rapidly. The potential benefits are great, as are the risks of extreme or even irreparable harm. There is so much work to be done and not much time to do it!” Scandinaro wrote.

Who is Dylan Scandinaro?

According to his LinkedIn profile, Scandinaro worked as a Technical Staff Member at Anthropic from May 2025 until February of this year. He previously worked as a Product Manager at Google DeepMind from September 2022 to May 2025 and worked on synthetic data for Gemini.

He also has experience at companies such as Palantir, Unity Technologies, and Everyday Robots.

Last year, OpenAI announced that it was considering hiring a new Chief Readiness Officer who would focus on reducing AI-related harms, including cybersecurity and mental health risks. The company also announced that it would offer the candidate a salary of $550,000 (approximately). ₹4.94 crore) and equity in the company.

The company first announced its Readiness team in 2023, led by Aleksander Madry of MIT’s Center for Deployable Machine Learning. The company later reassigned Madry to a role focusing on artificial intelligence logic, and other researchers in the department also left soon after.

The push to hire a new Head of Readiness gained momentum after allegations from former company employees that OpenAI did not take adequate security measures. A number of lawsuits have also been filed against the company regarding teenage suicide cases.