July 23 (Reuters) - OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman

said on Tuesday the ChatGPT maker's AI safety leader Aleksander

Madry was working on a new research project, as the startup

rejigs the preparedness team.

"Aleksander is working on a new and v(very) important

research project," Altman said in a post on X, adding that

OpenAI executives Joaquin Quinonero Candela and Lilian Weng will

be taking over the preparedness team in the meanwhile.

The preparedness team helps to evaluate artificial general

intelligence readiness of the company's AI models, a

spokesperson for OpenAI said in statement, adding Madry will

take on a bigger role within the research organization following

the move.

Madry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

"Joaquin and Lilian are taking over the preparedness team as

part of unifying our safety work", Altman wrote in the post.

The Information, which was the first to report Madry's move,

had said researcher Tejal Patwardhan will manage much of the

work of the team.

The moves come when OpenAI's chatbots, which can engage in

human-like conversations and create videos and images based on

text prompts, have become increasingly powerful and have stirred

safety concerns.

Earlier this year, the Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed company

formed a Safety and Security Committee to be led by board

members, including CEO Sam Altman, in the run-up to its training

of its next artificial intelligence model.

(Reporting by Gursimran Kaur and Shreya Biswas in Bengaluru;

Editing by Tasim Zahid and Sriraj Kalluvila)