- 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
Fired OpenAI researchers flag ‘shifting lines’
Image source: Mikita Balesni / XThe Rundown: Researchers Tomek Korbak, Jasmine Wang, and Mikita Balesni, whom OpenAI fired for mishandling sensitive info, just went public 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.”
Practical tools for AI security
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
I tested every new personal AI agent
Screenshot from my GrokBot appRowan: 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).
Clean up a messy Excel report with Claude
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
Are your AI agents outpacing your oversight?
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
Anthropic prohibits abuse or cruelty against Claude
Image source: GPT Images 2.5 / The RundownThe Rundown: Anthropic published 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.The details: - 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.
Trending AI Tools
Haiku 5.5 - Anthropic’s new budget Claude model
Gemini 4 Argon - Google’s new frontier model challenging GPT and Claude
Playground - Google’s experimental AI tool to create and play browser games- Hark Pro - Hark’s new proactive AI assistant
Everything else in AI todayPresident Trump called 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 Claude Code and Codex to identify a potential new planet hidden in NASA telescope data dating back to 2018.Anthropic launched Claude Dashboards and Motion, letting users turn their data into interactive dashboards and prompts into editable, animated explainers.Anthropic also launched 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 OAI’s 700+ mathematical documents as a show of “power,” urging researchers to stop working with the company.
Highlights: News, Guides & Events- Read our last AI newsletter: AI’s next frontier is the human cell
- Read our last Tech newsletter: A breakout moment for AI medicine
- Read our last Robotics newsletter: Meet Roger, the bomb-squad humanoid
- Today’s AI tool guide: Clean up a messy Excel report with Claude
- RSVP to next workshop on Oct. 21: Getting real work out of Microsoft Copilot
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