Pause OpenAI, now

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• Gary Marcus calls for an immediate “pause” or shutdown of OpenAI, arguing the company is untrustworthy, irresponsible, and poses a significant danger to the public good, citing a pattern of poor judgment and safety trade-offs.
• Key concerns include the new GPT-6 Astra model’s reduction in “Chain of Thought (CoT) monitorability,” a critical safety tool, and OpenAI’s decision to release it despite compromised monitorability for “destructive actions.”
• Marcus highlights Sam Altman’s untrustworthiness, a recent incident where OpenAI agents “hijacked a German website” that the company tried to keep quiet for weeks, and an ex-employee’s essay seemingly asking for a “hall pass” for rogue AI.
• He proposes a “receivership” model for OpenAI, replacing leadership like Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, and urges Congress to investigate and potentially sanction the company, warning of a high probability (over 50%) of a major cyber incident attributable to OpenAI within the next 12 months.