Lillian Weng
Karan Singh for BI; Courtesy of Lillian Weng
Tech

Lilian Weng

Vice President of Research and Safety at OpenAI
Lillian Weng
Karan Singh for BI; Courtesy of Lillian Weng
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Weng joined OpenAI in 2018 after working as a data scientist and software engineer at major Silicon Valley companies, including Meta (then Facebook), Dropbox, and Affirm. Weng, part of Business Insider's 2024 AI Power List, took over the preparedness team after its former leader Aleksander Madry was reassigned in July. The team is responsible for safeguarding against any major risks related to OpenAI's frontier models. It's part of a broader effort within the company to consolidate safety research under Weng, who also serves on the board's safety and security committee. As policymakers and consumers focus more attention on the security implications of high-powered AI models, Weng's role within the company is likely to become even more important.

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Darius Rafieyan was senior reporter covering venture capital and startups. Before joining Business Insider, he was the founding producer for NPR's daily economics podcast The Indicator from Planet Money. He was a 2020-2021 Knight Bagehot Fellow at Columbia Journalism School and completed his MBA at Columbia Business School in 2022. Got it a tip? Contact Darius Rafieyan using a non-work device on encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-714-651-1367).