He has published a popular essay called "Situational Awareness" about the emergence of artificial general intelligence and related security risks.

[4][5] Aschenbrenner joined OpenAI in 2023, on a project called "Superalignment" that researches how potential future superintelligences could be aligned with human values.

OpenAI later fired him in April 2024 over an alleged information leak, which Aschenbrenner said was about a benign brainstorming document shared to three external researchers for feedback.

OpenAI stated that the firing is unrelated to the security memo, whereas Aschenbrenner said that it was made explicit to him at the time that it was a major reason.

[10] Aschenbrenner said that he started an investment firm with investors Patrick and John Collison, Daniel Gross, and Nat Friedman.