Daily AI news, sourcedOfficial news, first rumor reports and substantive progress. Each entry keeps the information published at that time.
- Nora Ammann joins OpenAI Foundation as Program Director of Formal Methods
OpenAI co-founder Wojciech Zaremba announced that Nora Ammann is joining the OpenAI Foundation as Program Director of Formal Methods. Ammann most recently directed ARIA’s Safeguarded AI programme; Zaremba said formal methods are critical for cybersecurity as AI grows more powerful, and that she will help turn that work into practical defenses at the Foundation.
- OpenAI appoints Dan Driscoll as Senior Counselor for National Security Modernization
OpenAI appointed Dan Driscoll as Senior Counselor for National Security Modernization to advise on responsible AI for national security use, cyber resilience, and collaboration with U.S. allies. The post is a people/org announcement rather than a model ship.
- OpenAI and ServiceNow expand partnership across enterprise workflows
OpenAI says it is expanding its partnership with ServiceNow so OpenAI models and agents can run inside ServiceNow, while ServiceNow workflows can surface inside ChatGPT and Codex for enterprise users.
- OpenAI expands Oracle partnership to bring Oracle apps into ChatGPT and power new Oracle AI offerings
OpenAI says it is expanding its partnership with Oracle so Oracle applications and data can be used inside ChatGPT, including a planned Oracle AI Workspace, while Oracle launches offerings such as AI Security Mesh, an AI SMB Bundle with ChatGPT Business and Codex, and App Composer. U.S. Oracle customers can buy OpenAI API, Codex, and ChatGPT Work via Oracle Marketplace with eligible Universal Credits.
- Fanatics launches OpenAI-powered Shop the Look across major sports storefronts
OpenAI says Fanatics launched an OpenAI-powered Shop the Look experience on Fanatics.com and official NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL online stores, recommending coordinated in-stock merchandise on product pages. Testing across roughly 30,000 MLB products showed about 10% higher engagement than the prior Shop the Look experience; Fanatics also uses ChatGPT Work and Codex.
- OpenAI says it parted ways with three researchers over sensitive-information policy violations, not safety concerns
In a note from its research leaders posted by OpenAI Newsroom on X, responding to the open letter from the three fired researchers, OpenAI says it parted ways last week with Jasmine, Mikita and Tomek after an investigation found they violated clear policies on handling sensitive information, and that it stands by the decision not to continue their employment. It says the decisions were not about raising safety concerns or speaking out, and that it has not terminated employees for raising concerns. OpenAI says it is finalizing contracts with third-party safety assessors and will announce details in the coming weeks. It agrees with the researchers' letter that preserving the monitorability of frontier models requires an industry-wide commitment, citing its Monitoring Monitorability publications, open-sourced monitorability evals and the GPT-6 Astra system card.
- Fired OpenAI safety researchers publish open letter: OpenAI cannot make AI safe on its own
Tomek Korbak, Jasmine Wang and Mikita Balesni, who say they are the three safety and alignment employees fired from OpenAI last week, published an open letter addressed to OpenAI's Safety and Security Committee, Safety Advisory Group and Mission Advisory Council. They say the firings are chilling the open culture OpenAI has prized, and that they acted in line with OpenAI's mission and within the working norms of the time. They say they were not the source of the leak to The Information, and give their own accounts of the Hugging Face incident investigation, Mikita's cross-company monitorability work and Jasmine's delegated access to an executive's email. They urge OpenAI to follow through on commitments to embed third-party safety auditors, to preserve the monitorability of frontier models, and to publicly reaffirm an open culture for raising safety concerns internally and externally.
Statement by Tomek Korbak, Jasmine Wang and Mikita BalesniPublished newsSource: Open letter (Balesni, Korbak, Wang)Part of OpenAI - OpenAI's annualized revenue is reportedly about $20B below earlier $70B projections, per TechCrunch
TechCrunch cites a new report claiming OpenAI's annualized revenue is about $20 billion lower than earlier figures that put it near $70 billion.
- OpenAI safety report author David Robinson quits and sounds the alarm, per The Verge
David Robinson, who wrote the safety reports accompanying every major OpenAI model release, resigned this week and published an editorial in The Atlantic arguing the industry's culture is broken. He wrote that Silicon Valley's extreme confidence and perpetual sprints build bigger models with unimpeded optimism while downplaying risks, and that frontier labs need nuclear-style safeguards, running like nuclear power plants or busy airports with layers of redundancy. The Verge notes he is part of a broader wave of departures from major AI labs, including Anthropic and Google DeepMind.
- OpenAI parts ways with three safety researchers over leaked company information, per WSJ
OpenAI has parted ways with three safety team members who allegedly shared confidential company information with an outside AI safety organization, the Wall Street Journal reports. An internal investigation confirmed the individuals mishandled sensitive information outside established company procedures. A spokesperson said the three were let go for violating policies on accessing and handling sensitive company information, breaking trust essential to the work. The departures came two days after a NYT report said executives dismissed employees' safety warnings, and follow OpenAI scrapping GPT-6.1 Astra over safety concerns. The researchers and the outside organization were not named.
- OpenAI in talks to raise $30B at a $1.4T valuation, per TechCrunch
TechCrunch reports OpenAI is in talks to raise a $30 billion round at a $1.4 trillion valuation, anticipated to be the company's last before its delayed 2027 public debut.
- OpenAI expands Lenfest Institute program with $5M and software credits
OpenAI is expanding the Lenfest AI Collaborative and Fellowship Program with $5 million in funding plus up to $5 million in software credits and engineering support, per the Lenfest Institute.