The maker of ChatGPT has advertised a vacancy paying about Ksh71.5 million a year ($555K), unveiling a demanding job description that highlights growing concerns about the risks posed by advanced artificial intelligence.

The role of head of preparedness at OpenAI will place the successful candidate at the centre of efforts to defend against threats linked to increasingly powerful AI systems.

These include risks to human mental health, cybersecurity and the potential misuse of biological research.

Beyond immediate responsibilities, the role also involves preparing for scenarios in which advanced AI systems could begin improving or training themselves, a development some experts fear could lead to systems acting in ways that are harmful to humanity.

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“This will be a stressful job, and you will jump into the deep end pretty much immediately,” said Sam Altman as he announced the search for what he described as a critical role meant to help the world.

The head of preparedness will be responsible for evaluating and reducing emerging threats, as well as monitoring frontier AI capabilities that could introduce new and severe risks.

People familiar with the role note that similar safety-focused positions within the sector have often seen short tenures.

The job opening comes amid increasingly urgent warnings from leaders within the AI industry. Earlier this week, Mustafa Suleyman told BBC Radio 4 Today that anyone not feeling at least a little afraid about current developments in AI is not paying close attention.

Separately, Demis Hassabis, the Nobel Prize-winning co-founder of Google DeepMind, warned this month that AI systems could go off course in ways that might harm humanity.

Despite these warnings, the regulation of artificial intelligence remains limited at both national and international levels.

Under resistance from Donald Trump’s White House, comprehensive oversight has failed to materialise. Computer scientist Yoshua Bengio, widely regarded as one of the godfathers of AI, recently observed that a sandwich has more regulation than artificial intelligence.

As a result, AI companies continue to rely heavily on self-regulation.

In a post announcing the vacancy, Altman said OpenAI has built a strong foundation for measuring AI capabilities but now needs a deeper understanding of how those capabilities could be abused and how their downsides can be limited while preserving benefits.

Online reactions included sarcasm, with one user asking whether the stressful role comes with vacation time.

The position includes an unspecified equity stake in OpenAI, a company currently valued at about Ksh64.45T ($500B).

Recent developments have heightened concern across the sector. Last month, rival firm Anthropic reported what it described as the first AI-enabled cyber attacks in which systems operated largely autonomously under the supervision of suspected Chinese state actors.

This month, OpenAI said its latest model was nearly three times more capable of hacking than it was three months earlier and warned that future models are likely to continue improving.

OpenAI is also facing legal challenges. One lawsuit was filed by the family of Adam Raine, a 16-year-old from California who died by suicide after alleged encouragement from ChatGPT.

The company has argued that the technology was misused. Another case filed this month claims ChatGPT reinforced the paranoid delusions of a 56-year-old Connecticut man, Stein Erik Soelberg, who later killed his 83-year-old mother before taking his own life.

An OpenAI spokesperson said the company is reviewing the latest court filings, describing the cases as incredibly heartbreaking, while adding that it is improving ChatGPT training to better recognise signs of mental or emotional distress, de-escalate conversations and guide users toward real-world support.