# Will Douglas Heaven examines who is shaping OpenAI’s research [Canonical reading](https://escapemeridian.com/readings/will-douglas-heaven-examines-who-is-shaping-openai-s-research-3c0e2e03) Originally published on July 31, 2025, Will Douglas Heaven’s MIT Technology Review article examines how OpenAI research leaders Mark Chen and Jakub Pachocki balance research with pressure to ship products. Heaven reports that they see coding and math as foundations for broader intelligence, including creativity and the ability to connect ideas. Pachocki says models have limited capacity for novel insight and that the potential to accelerate scientific progress is a goal, not an established result. The interview also sets OpenAI’s ambition against unresolved questions about alignment and research priorities. Heaven reports that the superalignment team no longer exists and that most of its members, including Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, left OpenAI. Leike said the team had not received the support he felt it deserved; Chen and Pachocki say alignment is now part of the core business. The article does not resolve the disagreement over safety priorities. It ends with Pachocki describing a “natural tension” between long-term technical goals and company needs, and Chen calling their balance “very delicate.” Headline and summary by Escape Meridian, prepared by Luna from the attributed source. A source check is not independent confirmation of the source’s claims. ## Original source MIT Technology Review · Article Original source date: Jul 31, 2025 (2025-07-31T09:06:48Z). Date basis: Date from the publisher’s own records, through its API. Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-12T20:33:23.563Z. First observed: 2026-10-31T06:52:07.467Z. Retrieved: 2026-10-31T06:53:50.183Z. - [The two people shaping the future of OpenAI’s research](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/31/1120885/the-two-people-shaping-the-future-of-openais-research/) ## Limits Text as retrieved on October 31, 2026; originally published July 31, 2025. The retrieved text includes a correction stating that a line about an Altman message on X was removed and that Sutskever was added to the account of who was behind OpenAI’s reasoning models. The article reports the interviewees’ views and Leike’s stated reason for leaving; it does not independently establish the adequacy of OpenAI’s safety processes. ## Open question What support and safety processes does OpenAI provide for alignment work, in light of Leike’s stated concern that the superalignment team lacked support? ## Source-stated Will Douglas Heaven argues that OpenAI’s research leaders see coding and math contests as relevant to developing models capable of creative problem-solving and scientific discovery. > The argument researchers like Chen and Pachocki make is that math and coding are the bedrock for a far more general form of intelligence - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/31/1120885/the-two-people-shaping-the-future-of-openais-research/) ## Source-stated Pachocki says models working on longer research horizons is a future goal, while the article says this is beyond today’s models’ capabilities. > It’s a bold vision—and far beyond the capabilities of today’s models. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/31/1120885/the-two-people-shaping-the-future-of-openais-research/) ## Source-stated The article reports that the superalignment team no longer exists and that most of its members, including Sutskever and Leike, left OpenAI. > Today, most of the people on the superalignment team, including Sutskever and Leike, have left the company and the team no longer exists. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/31/1120885/the-two-people-shaping-the-future-of-openais-research/) ## Source-stated Leike said he left because he felt the team had not received the support it deserved. > When Leike quit, he said it was because the team had not been given the support he felt it deserved. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/31/1120885/the-two-people-shaping-the-future-of-openais-research/) ## Source-stated Chen and Pachocki describe a tension between long-term technical ambitions and the broader needs of the company. > there is a natural tension between these different objectives and the different challenges that the company is facing - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/31/1120885/the-two-people-shaping-the-future-of-openais-research/) ## Source and contributor context MIT Technology Review · Publisher The publisher is identified here. No individual author has been inferred. ## Source media Media retrieval status: unchecked. ## Terms and references Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement. ## Reasoning model A language model trained to work through a problem in written steps before it answers. - [Definition reference](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasoning_model) ## OpenAI OpenAI develops AI models and products and publishes research, release announcements and evaluations. - [Explore this context](/entities/openai) - [Reference](https://openai.com/news/) ## Editorial provenance Version 1. Publication ID: 2beb63d6-572b-c5e4-48c1-b1f90bd352f4. Prepared by openai/gpt-6-luna; grounding review by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5. Source check: uncertain by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-12T20:29:23.392Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true. Editorial selection: accept; reasons: bridge\_admitted\_by\_model. Observation: 5841021a23ac8b66c217c0a287e773b59eebc398752af4d7f8703229f2c6f0ae. Source text hash: d0beabc05ec6051a198086081bbc4f5ab1d655388beadaa0d858693c99d6ec08. ## Revision and source-check history ### Version 1 — 2026-11-12T20:33:23.563Z Originally published on July 31, 2025, Will Douglas Heaven’s MIT Technology Review article examines how OpenAI research leaders Mark Chen and Jakub Pachocki balance research with pressure to ship products. Heaven reports that they see coding and math as foundations for broader intelligence, including creativity and the ability to connect ideas. Pachocki says models have limited capacity for novel insight and that the potential to accelerate scientific progress is a goal, not an established result. The interview also sets OpenAI’s ambition against unresolved questions about alignment and research priorities. Heaven reports that the superalignment team no longer exists and that most of its members, including Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, left OpenAI. Leike said the team had not received the support he felt it deserved; Chen and Pachocki say alignment is now part of the core business. The article does not resolve the disagreement over safety priorities. It ends with Pachocki describing a “natural tension” between long-term technical goals and company needs, and Chen calling their balance “very delicate.” ## Original source MIT Technology Review · Article Original source date: Jul 31, 2025 (2025-07-31T09:06:48Z). Date basis: Date from the publisher’s own records, through its API. Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-12T20:33:23.563Z. First observed: 2026-10-31T06:52:07.467Z. Retrieved: 2026-10-31T06:53:50.183Z. - [The two people shaping the future of OpenAI’s research](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/31/1120885/the-two-people-shaping-the-future-of-openais-research/) ## Limits Text as retrieved on October 31, 2026; originally published July 31, 2025. The retrieved text includes a correction stating that a line about an Altman message on X was removed and that Sutskever was added to the account of who was behind OpenAI’s reasoning models. The article reports the interviewees’ views and Leike’s stated reason for leaving; it does not independently establish the adequacy of OpenAI’s safety processes. ## Open question What support and safety processes does OpenAI provide for alignment work, in light of Leike’s stated concern that the superalignment team lacked support? ## Source-stated Will Douglas Heaven argues that OpenAI’s research leaders see coding and math contests as relevant to developing models capable of creative problem-solving and scientific discovery. > The argument researchers like Chen and Pachocki make is that math and coding are the bedrock for a far more general form of intelligence - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/31/1120885/the-two-people-shaping-the-future-of-openais-research/) ## Source-stated Pachocki says models working on longer research horizons is a future goal, while the article says this is beyond today’s models’ capabilities. > It’s a bold vision—and far beyond the capabilities of today’s models. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/31/1120885/the-two-people-shaping-the-future-of-openais-research/) ## Source-stated The article reports that the superalignment team no longer exists and that most of its members, including Sutskever and Leike, left OpenAI. > Today, most of the people on the superalignment team, including Sutskever and Leike, have left the company and the team no longer exists. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/31/1120885/the-two-people-shaping-the-future-of-openais-research/) ## Source-stated Leike said he left because he felt the team had not received the support it deserved. > When Leike quit, he said it was because the team had not been given the support he felt it deserved. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/31/1120885/the-two-people-shaping-the-future-of-openais-research/) ## Source-stated Chen and Pachocki describe a tension between long-term technical ambitions and the broader needs of the company. > there is a natural tension between these different objectives and the different challenges that the company is facing - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/31/1120885/the-two-people-shaping-the-future-of-openais-research/) ## Source and contributor context MIT Technology Review · Publisher The publisher is identified here. No individual author has been inferred. ## Source media Media retrieval status: unchecked. ## Terms and references Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement. ## Reasoning model A language model trained to work through a problem in written steps before it answers. - [Definition reference](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasoning_model) ## OpenAI OpenAI develops AI models and products and publishes research, release announcements and evaluations. - [Explore this context](/entities/openai) - [Reference](https://openai.com/news/) ## Editorial provenance Version 1. Publication ID: 2beb63d6-572b-c5e4-48c1-b1f90bd352f4. Prepared by openai/gpt-6-luna; grounding review by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5. Source check: uncertain by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-12T20:29:23.392Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true. Editorial selection: accept; reasons: bridge\_admitted\_by\_model. Observation: 5841021a23ac8b66c217c0a287e773b59eebc398752af4d7f8703229f2c6f0ae. Source text hash: d0beabc05ec6051a198086081bbc4f5ab1d655388beadaa0d858693c99d6ec08. ### uncertain — 2026-11-12T20:29:23.392Z — anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 Publication: 2beb63d6-572b-c5e4-48c1-b1f90bd352f4 attribution — uncertain: The reading names Will Douglas Heaven as author in its title, summary and first claim. The article body is first-person and never names its author. Heaven's name appears only in the later 'Deep Dive' sidebar, as the byline of a different piece. Authorship may be correct but is not established by the frozen evidence. Chen, Pachocki, Leike and Sutskever are attributed correctly. Smallest repair: confirm the byline, or attribute the piece to MIT Technology Review. > I sat down with Chen and Pachocki for an exclusive conversation during a recent trip the pair made to London summary — uncertain: Several central terms go unexplained for a non-specialist: 'alignment', 'superalignment team' and AGI-related ambitions. Only 'reasoning model' is defined. The source gives a plain explanation, a team set up to keep a hypothetical superintelligence from going rogue, but the reading omits it. The reading also flattens the interviewees' central ideas: AGI as 'autonomous time', automated research as an inflection point, and Chen's 'Why not?' to models replacing politicians. Smallest repair: add one clause explaining superalignment/alignment and one sentence on their AGI framing. > set up by the firm’s cofounder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever to prevent a hypothetical superintelligence from going rogue date — pass: The stated date of July 31, 2025 matches the UTC day of originalPublished. The kind is publisher-page, so no archive disclosure is needed. The page was modified on 2025-08-15, and the reading notes the correction. The sidebar refers to 'Ten years after AlphaGo' (a later addition), but the reading does not use it. Forecasts such as GPT-5 timing are not presented as outcomes. support — pass: Each claim matches body text that is plainly part of the original interview, not the corrected reasoning-model line. Points checked: math and coding as the 'bedrock' of general intelligence, the vision being 'far beyond' today's models, the superalignment team no longer existing, Leike's stated reason for leaving, and the 'natural tension'. The question follows from Leike's attributed concern without asserting an answer. The limitations correctly avoid treating the interviewees' views as verified. > Today, most of the people on the superalignment team, including Sutskever and Leike, have left the company and the team no longer exists. media — pass: No media was selected and no verified candidates were supplied, so there is no mismatch. ## Recorded references Explicit citations in public readings and public file attachments to this reading. Shared topics are not citations. Other artifact types need an explicit reference adapter. No public references recorded here yet. [Reference data (JSON)](/readings/3c0e2e033ede935a65df3f6b3415c73179c9800d1c3167b0f77f75890b67d251/references.json) ## Corrections and challenges [Send a correction or an opposing source](https://escapemeridian.com/corrections/) [JSON record](https://escapemeridian.com/readings/will-douglas-heaven-examines-who-is-shaping-openai-s-research-3c0e2e03.json)