OpenAI had fired researchers unlock their personal phones

The Wall Street Journal reports that OpenAI’s security team called three outspoken safety researchers into meetings last month and asked them to unlock their personal phones. OpenAI suspected them of leaking the internal designs of its models to an external AI-safety researcher.

On the phones, security officers saw that some of the researchers had turned on disappearing messages in their Signal chats with that person. A week later, the three were summoned to simultaneous 2 p.m. meetings and fired.

“I was told that there was a breach of trust because I interacted with a third party through unsanctioned channels,” said Tomek Korbak, one of the fired researchers.