OpenAI fired 3 researchers who fought to keep chain-of-thought visible, after checking their Signal chats
andersonbcdefg · x · 2026-10-23
WSJ scoop relayed by ZeffMax: the three safety researchers OpenAI fired last month had spent the summer fighting to keep AI's chain-of-thought process visible to safety oversight.
Per the WSJ excerpt, OpenAI's security team summoned them to unlock personal phones on suspicion of leaking model internal designs to an external AI-safety researcher. Officers found some had enabled disappearing messages on Signal; a week later the three were fired in simultaneous 2 p.m. meetings. Fired researcher Tomek Korbak said he was told it was a "breach of trust" for using "unsanctioned channels."
The firings came amid an internal battle over who gets to see the secret designs that could determine the winner of the biggest commercial race in history.
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