Outspoken advocates for model transparency were terminated from the company last month after OpenAI sought access to their personal mobile devices. The dismissals occurred 1 week after officials demanded employees unlock their phones and provide access to Signal chats to assist an internal probe into a story in The Information regarding Astra’s use of opaque architectures.
The firings center on a dispute over the level of access third-party monitors, such as METR and Redwood, should have to verify AI safety. While the researchers advocated for the visibility of the chain-of-thought process to maintain human control over AI systems, the company has prioritized protecting secret designs amidst a global commercial race.