Gary Marcus Urges Attention to Risks of Reduced CoT Monitorability at OpenAI

GaryMarcus · x · 2026-09-02

In light of breaking news about OpenAI's new techniques that reduce Chain of Thought monitorability, Gary Marcus urges everybody to read the 2025 paper 'Chain of Thought Monitorability: A New and Fragile Opportunity for AI Safety.' The abstract notes that while imperfect, CoT monitoring shows promise but may be fragile, recommending that developers consider the impact of development decisions on it. Marcus warns against sacrificing this monitorability.

Related event: OpenAI's Astra Reportedly Uses Recurrent Depth Architecture, Hiding Its Reasoning and Raising Safety Alarms(35 posts)→

Original post →

More from Safety

• OpenAI previews Astra: a cybersecurity model scoring 100% on ExploitBench — LingmingZhang · 2026-09-02
• Warning: The three pillars of an AI safety case are at risk of collapsing — sjgadler · 2026-09-02
• Amir clarifies: Astra's CoT is monitorable, concerns focus on future tech proliferation — jachiam0 · 2026-09-02
• Safin-1: Achieving Internal Safety via Memory-Native State Evolution — Shanghai-AI-Laboratory · 2026-09-02
• GaryMarcus warns OpenAI reportedly sacrificing CoT monitorability for performance — AndyMasley · 2026-09-02
• Experts Worry Secret AI Communication Will Hinder Incident Investigations — sjgadler · 2026-09-02

Safety channel →