The OpenAI foundation will prioritise life sciences, using AI to analyse complex data and support breakthroughs in disease treatment.
Altman flagged risks such as bio threats, economic disruption, and unpredictable societal impacts, calling for a coordinated global response.
Wojciech Zaremba will lead AI resilience efforts, alongside new leadership hires across research, finance, and operations.
OpenAI is now working on a new foundation that will invest at least $1 billion over the next year to accelerate scientific discovery, including the search for cures to major diseases. Taking to X, CEO Sam Altman said that artificial intelligence has the potential to improve the quality of life by enabling breakthroughs in sectors such as medical research.
SurveyThe early focus will be on life sciences with an effort to analyse complex biological data, identifying disease patterns and supporting work on high-impact health challenges. But, at the same time, Altman has warned that the rapid change in AI also brings serious risks that cannot be handled by individual companies alone.
He also mentioned concerns ranging from emerging biological threats to large-scale economic disruption and unpredictable societal effects caused by increasingly capable AI systems. Addressing these challenges will require coordinated efforts across government, industry and civil society.
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“AI will also present new threats to society that we have to address. No company can sufficiently mitigate these on their own; we will need a society-wide response to things like novel bio threats, a massive and fast change to the economy, extremely capable models causing complex emergent effects across society, and more,” he stated in the post.
AI will help discover new science, such as cures for diseases, which is perhaps the most important way to increase quality of life long-term.
— Sam Altman (@sama) March 24, 2026
AI will also present new threats to society that we have to address. No company can sufficiently mitigate these on their own; we will…
Altman also announced the new structure in the same post, stating OpenAI co-founder Wojciech Zaremba will transition to the role of Head of AI Resilience, where he will work on developing strategies to manage long-term risks associated with advanced AI. Altman also stated that this is important to rethink how safety is approached.
The foundation is also bringing in new leadership across key areas- Jacob Trefethen will lead initiatives related to disease research, while Anna Adeola Makanju will head efforts focused on civil society and philanthropy. Financial and operational roles will be overseen by Robert Kaiden and Jeff Arnold, the post added.
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Ashish Singh
Ashish Singh is the Chief Copy Editor at Digit. He's been wrangling tech jargon since 2020 (Times Internet, Jagran English '22). When not policing commas, he's likely fueling his gadget habit with coffee, strategising his next virtual race, or plotting a road trip to test the latest in-car tech. He speaks fluent Geek. View Full Profile
