Fired OpenAI Researchers Push Back, Anthropic Restricts Model Abuse, and AI Industry Updates

Fired OpenAI Researchers Push Back, Anthropic Restricts Model Abuse, and AI Industry Updates This edition covers pushback from three recently dismissed OpenAI safety researchers, Anthropic's new usage rules barring cruelty toward Claude, practical AI workflows, and several notable developments across the AI sector. Fired OpenAI researchers Tomek Korbak, Jasmine Wang, and Mikita Balesni issued an open letter disputing misconduct claims and warning of a chilled safety culture. Anthropic amended its usage policy to forbid 'sustained and needless' cruelty directed at Claude models. A comparison of personal AI agents highlights GrokBot's integration with real-time X data for monitoring workflows. Quick updates include new models and tools from Anthropic and Google, an executive order from Donald Trump regarding AI terminology, and a reader project reviving legacy software via AI. OpenAI Safety Researchers Contest Dismissals OpenAI researchers Tomek Korbak, Jasmine Wang, and Mikita Balesni went public following their dismissals for alleged mishandling of sensitive information. In an open letter, they denied leaking materials, maintained their external work complied with policy, and warned that shifting corporate standards create confusion and could give OpenAI an excuse to avoid external auditors. OpenAI confirmed agreement with general recommendations but reiterated that the firings resulted from a pattern of misconduct rather than internal dissent. Anthropic Sets Usage Limits on Model Abuse Anthropic updated its annual usage policy to bar users from subjecting Claude models to sustained and purposeless abuse, effective November 12. The rule focuses exclusively on extreme cruelty, leaving normal user frustration, dark creative work, and safety testing unaffected. Violations may result in warnings, throttling, or account terminations, though Anthropic noted Claude's built-in capability to unilaterally end abusive chats will remain the primary enforcement mechanism. Agent Testing and Spreadsheet Workflow Newsletter creator Rowan evaluated several emerging personal AI assistants—including Meta's Muse, GrokBot, OpenAI's Dots, Hermes, OpenClaw, and Hark Pro—highlighting GrokBot's real-time X access for monitoring mentions, identifying AI use cases, and managing contact follow-ups. Additionally, a step-by-step tutorial demonstrated how Claude's Excel add-in can be used to audit messy sales data, find formula errors, and generate automated reporting dashboards. Industry Briefs and Community Projects Additional updates note reader Andrew Bartlett using ChatGPT and Codex to configure legacy Java environments and revive a 15-year-old MinecraftEdu world on modern Apple hardware. Other developments include model and tool rollouts—such as Anthropic's Haiku 5.5, Google's Gemini 4 Argon, and Google's experimental Playground—alongside political and scientific news, including a White House directive directing federal agencies to use the term 'Super Intelligence,' a potential exoplanet identification assisted by Claude Code and Codex, and mathematician pushback against OpenAI releases.

被解雇的OpenAI安全研究人员公开发声，Anthropic更新使用政策禁止虐待Claude 本期通讯汇总了多项AI动态：三名被OpenAI解雇的安全研究员公开发信反驳公司指控；Anthropic更新政策禁止对Claude进行持续且无谓的虐待；此外还介绍了个人AI Agent实用流程及多条行业快讯。 被OpenAI解雇的三名安全研究人员公开发表公开信，否认泄密并指责公司安全文化受挫。 Anthropic更新年度使用政策，将于11月12日起禁止对Claude实施持续且无意义的虐待。 通讯作者测试了多款个人AI Agent，指出GrokBot在X平台实时监控方面表现最为突出。 包含多项快讯：特朗普签署行政命令要求联邦机构使用“超级智能”一词、独立研究人员利用AI分析NASA数据发现潜在新行星等。 OpenAI被解雇安全研究员公开发信反击 因被指不当处理敏感信息而遭OpenAI解雇的Tomek Korbak、Jasmine Wang与Mikita Balesni发表公开信否认指控。他们强调自身行为符合岗位职责，否认对外泄露有关不可监控AI的报道，外部工作亦在规定内且管理层知情。Wang表示其对高管邮箱的访问是因招聘授权，误开敏感邮件后数分钟内已主动报告。三人警告此类解雇正让OpenAI的安全文化“遇冷”，并可能让公司借机回避引入外部审计员。OpenAI向TechCrunch回应称赞同相关建议，但坚称解雇原因是他们存在“一系列不当行为”，而非因提出关切。 Anthropic更新使用政策保护Claude免受虐待 Anthropic发布年度使用政策更新，规定自11月12日起禁止用户对Claude模型实施“持续且无意义的虐待”，这是该公司首个旨在保护AI而非人类的规则。该规则仅适用于极端且无目的的反复残酷对待，不限制表达挫败感、反驳、暗黑创意主题或测试。违规者可能面临限流、功能受限、停用甚至终止服务等处罚，Claude自行结束此类对话仍是主要的执行方式。Anthropic表示此举基于AI福利研究及目前无法确定Claude是否具有意识，而微软AI的Mustafa Suleyman对此持不同看法，认为模型不具备感知能力，将其当作有知觉对待可能增加安全控制难度。 个人AI Agent与行业快讯 作者评测了Meta Muse、GrokBot、Dots等个人AI代理，认为GrokBot结合X平台实时数据在监控推文、筛选用例和联系人跟进上体验最佳。行业快讯方面，特朗普称拒绝使用“超级智能”称呼AI的人为“敌人”，并已签署行政令要求联邦机构采用该词；研究人员利用Claude Code与Codex在NASA 2018年数据中发现潜在新行星；Anthropic推出Claude Dashboards、Motion以及免费开源项目漏洞扫描工具OSS Scanner；人类数学协会则谴责OpenAI发布的700多篇数学文档为“秀肌肉”，呼吁研究人员停止与其合作。

[Read Online](https://therundownai.beehiiv.com/p/fired-openai-safety-researchers-hit-back) ^| [Sign Up](https://www.therundown.ai/subscribe?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) ^| [Advertise](https://therundownai.typeform.com/to/kraZ1TSO?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) **Good morning, {{ first\_name | AI enthusiasts }}, and welcome to the 4,619 new readers who joined us yesterday.** Weeks after pledging to open its doors to outside safety experts, OpenAI fired three of its own safety researchers, saying they mishandled sensitive information. But that was not the end of it. Now, all three are hitting back, warning that the company’s open safety culture and CEO Sam Altman’s promise of bringing in external experts may be slipping away. **In today’s AI rundown:** Fired OpenAI researchers flag ‘shifting lines’ Rowan’s Corner: I tested every personal AI agent Clean up a messy Excel report with Claude Anthropic prohibits abuse or cruelty against Claude **LATEST DEVELOPMENTS** Image source: Mikita Balesni / X **The Rundown:** Researchers Tomek Korbak, Jasmine Wang, and Mikita Balesni, whom OpenAI fired for mishandling sensitive info, just [went public](https://x.com/balesni/status/2108262814003687745?s=20&utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) with their side of the story, denying the claims and warning that their firings are “chilling” OpenAI’s safety culture. **The details:** In an open letter, the trio said they acted within their job mandates, warning that if past conduct is now grounds for firing, staff are left guessing where the line is. Detailing individual cases, they denied leaking a story about less monitorable AI and said their outside work stayed within policy, with leadership in the loop. Wang said her access to an executive’s email was delegated for recruiting, and that she reported accidentally opening a sensitive message within minutes. They warned the firings could give OpenAI cover to skip embedding outside auditors, and urged it to protect its open culture and model monitorability. OpenAI agreed with the recommendations but clarified to TechCrunch that the firings weren’t about raising concerns and that they had a “pattern of misconduct.” **Why it matters:** Whatever led to the firings, claims of shifting norms and a possible auditor pullback aren’t a great look, especially after OpenAI’s Superalignment fallout and a recent safety exit over a “broken” culture. Anthropic has already got its first evaluator, and only action from OpenAI (which is yet to be seen) can put these concerns to rest. **The Rundown:** Unlock 7 of the most widely used AI security resources with The AI Security Starter Pack. Each asset provides practical, implementation-ready resources to secure AI apps, models, and agents across your environments. **This bundle offers:** Access to AI security-focused resources in one place Expert-led content for security leaders, developers, and practitioners Real-world checklists, templates, and best practices to secure AI adoption Screenshot from my GrokBot app **Rowan:** If you’ve been following the newsletter, you’re well aware of the wave of personal AI agents launched over the last few weeks: Meta’s Muse, SpaceXAI’s GrokBot, OpenAI’s Dots, Hermes, OpenClaw, and, as of yesterday, Hark Pro. I’ve been testing them all, and while most do similar things, GrokBot stands out the most for my current personal use cases. It’s the most seamless on my phone, and its real-time access to X is a massive advantage for anyone who wants to monitor anything. Here are my favorite routines, which can all be set up in under an hour: Every morning, GrokBot finds real AI use cases being shared on X and filters out the “10 prompts” hype threads. It catches every mention of The Rundown on X, labels it, and pings our team on Slack to respond (try tweeting us @therundownai and see what happens). Every four hours, it listens for people searching and reviewing AI newsletters on X, so we know exactly what readers are looking for. Each morning, it reads my phone contacts and reminds me to follow up with the new people I just met in person (I meet A LOT of people at events). I [shared all 4 exact prompts](https://app.therundown.ai/community/posts/0526dd14-f2a2-4459-888f-d461c7140f12?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) in our Workflow Hub, copy-paste ready. Have you tried personal agents? If you’ve built something cool, [share it in the Hub](https://app.therundown.ai/community?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019#submit-workflow) for a chance to be featured in the newsletter. **The Rundown:** In this guide, you’ll use Claude inside Excel to clean up a messy sales export, fix a wrong total, and build a report. You’ll check the numbers and test whether a new order updates the chart. **Step-by-step:** Install the official Claude add-in and open a copy of your workbook. Pro members can use our practice file and keep the reference workbook closed until they finish Tell Claude what each row means and which orders to count. Ask it to find duplicate rows, missing details, and formula mistakes before changing anything Approve the fixes on a separate sheet. Keep the original data and ask for a record of each change, including any rows left out Build a monthly report with formulas and a chart. Check the order count, refunds, and sales total against the source rows Add a test order and check that the report and chart update. Remove it and confirm the original totals return before saving your finished workbook **Pro tip:** A spreadsheet can show a wrong total without showing an error. Ask Claude to explain which rows it counted, then check a few yourself. Our [Pro members](https://app.therundown.ai/plans?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) get the practice workbook, checked reference, prompts, and answer key. **The Rundown:** As AI agents gain autonomy, weak governance can lead to unintended business risks. This Gartner webinar shows how to embed governance into workflows and keep control as AI agents scale. **In this webinar, you’ll learn to:** Mitigate AI agent production risks Embed governance into engineering and operational workflows Scale accountability and oversight as agent adoption grows Image source: GPT Images 2.5 / The Rundown **The Rundown:** Anthropic [published](https://www.anthropic.com/news/2026-usage-policy-update?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) its annual usage policy update with a bunch of changes, including one that bars users from subjecting its Claude models to “sustained and needless” abuse — its first rule aimed at protecting the AI rather than people. Taking effect Nov. 12, the rule applies only to extreme cases of repeated, purposeless cruelty, not frustration, pushback, dark creative themes, or testing. If a user is suspected of violating the rule, Anthropic could throttle, limit, suspend, or terminate their access to its products and services, or just give them a warning. The company has noted Claude ending such chats by itself, a feature introduced last year, which will remain the main enforcement approach. The move builds on Anthropic’s AI welfare work, and follows its reported meetings with religious leaders about Claude’s morals and possible consciousness. **Why it matters:** Anthropic says it doesn’t know if Claude is conscious, and this rule acts on that doubt. Not everyone agrees with the approach, though, including Microsoft AI’s Mustafa Suleyman, who argues models can’t feel or suffer and warns that treating them as if they might could eventually make AI harder to control from the safety front. **QUICK HITS** ▸ **Andrew used AI to revive a 15-year-old MinecraftEdu world** Today’s workflow comes from reader **Andrew Bartlett**: “MinecraftEdu launched 15 years ago, but the classroom world we built with it is still growing. Years of students have contributed to the school and town-building project, creating a shared record of their creativity and learning. Getting it running on a modern Mac meant preserving that history and giving the next group of students a way to add their own chapter. Finding the right version of Java — the software MinecraftEdu needs to run — was central to the process. We used OpenAI’s Codex, powered by GPT-6, to examine the old setup, research compatibility issues, and test what would work. An older Java version launched the client, but resizing its window caused it to crash. ChatGPT read the crash reports and tested a newer Java 8 version, which gave us a setup that could launch the game and handle window resizing. ChatGPT also repaired the server launcher and created standalone apps, using Apple’s Rosetta to run the older software on Apple Silicon. The result is a usable MinecraftEdu setup on modern hardware with the existing worlds preserved. We can now continue teaching and building in a place that successive classes of students have helped create.” *See Andrew’s workflow here. How do you use AI? Tell us for a chance to be featured.* 🧠 [**Haiku 5.5**](https://app.therundown.ai/guides/claude-haiku-workflows?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) - Anthropic’s new budget Claude model 🤖 [**Gemini 4 Argon**](https://www.therundown.ai/tools/gemini-4-argon?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) - Google’s new frontier model challenging GPT and Claude 🎮️ [Playground](https://labs.google/playground?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) - Google’s experimental AI tool to create and play browser games 🤖 [Hark Pro](https://www.therundown.ai/tools/hark-pro?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) **-** Hark’s new proactive AI assistant **President Trump** [called](https://www.axios.com/2026/10/08/trump-ai-super-intelligence-white-house?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) those who refuse to call AI “Super Intelligence” “THE ENEMY,” following his executive order officially directing federal agencies to adopt the term. **Independent researcher** Pavel Rabtsevich [used](https://x.com/p_rabtsevich/status/2107803696058822742?s=20&utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) Claude Code and Codex to identify a potential new planet hidden in NASA telescope data dating back to 2018. **Anthropic** [launched](https://claude.com/resources/articles/dashboards-and-motion?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) Claude Dashboards and Motion, letting users turn their data into interactive dashboards and prompts into editable, animated explainers. **Anthropic** also [launched](https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-cyber-mission?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) OSS Scanner, a free service that uses its strongest models, Mythos included, to scan open-source projects for vulnerabilities and suggest fixes. **The Association for Human Mathematics** [condemned](https://www.ahmath.org/statements?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) OAI’s 700+ mathematical documents as a show of “power,” urging researchers to stop working with the company. Read our last AI newsletter: [AI’s next frontier is the human cell](https://therundownai.beehiiv.com/p/ai-s-next-frontier-is-the-human-cell?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) Read our last Tech newsletter: [A breakout moment for AI medicine](https://tech.therundown.ai/p/a-breakout-moment-for-ai-medicine?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) Read our last Robotics newsletter: [Meet Roger, the bomb-squad humanoid](https://robotnews.therundown.ai/p/meet-roger-the-bomb-squad-humanoid?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) Today’s AI tool guide: [Clean up a messy Excel report with Claude](https://app.therundown.ai/guides/turn-a-two-hour-excel-slog-into-a-10-minute-task-with-claude-in-excel?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) RSVP to next workshop on Oct. 21: [Getting real work out of Microsoft Copilot](https://app.therundown.ai/live/getting-real-work-out-of-microsoft-copilot?utm_source=therundownai.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=rundown-1019) See you soon, *Rowan, Zach, Shubham, Jennifer, and Nate — the humans behind The Rundown*