Max Zeff

OpenAI Staffer Quits, Alleging Company’s Economic Research Is Drifting Into AI Advocacy Four sources close to the situation claim OpenAI has become hesitant to publish research on the negative impact of AI. The company says it has only expanded the economic research team’s scope.

NEW: Four sources tell @mzeff.bsky.social that OpenAI has become reluctant to publish research on the negative economic impacts of AI, including job displacement.

At least two members of OpenAI's economic research team have recently quit over that perceived pullback.

OpenAI Staffer Quits, Alleging Company’s Economic Research Is Drifting Into AI Advocacy Four sources close to the situation claim OpenAI has become hesitant to publish research on the negative impact of AI. The company says it has only expanded the economic research team’s scope.

An OpenAI staffer has quit, claiming that the company has backed off from publishing negative economic research about AI. scoop from @mzeff.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/openai...

A Research Leader Behind ChatGPT’s Mental Health Work Is Leaving OpenAI The model policy team leads core parts of AI safety research, including how ChatGPT responds to users in crisis.

An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the news, saying the company is searching for a replacement, and Vallone's team will report to Johannes Heidecke, the head of safety systems, in the interim.

More here: www.wired.com/story/openai...

SCOOP: As OpenAI faces increased scrutiny over how ChatGPT responds to distressed users, a research leader spearheading that work announced her departure, WIRED has learned.

Andrea Vallone, the head of model policy, will leave the company by the end of 2025.

OpenAI Locks Down San Francisco Offices Following Alleged Threat From Activist A message on OpenAI’s internal Slack claimed the activist in question had expressed interest in “causing physical harm to OpenAI employees.”

Scoop w/ @peard33.bsky.social and @mzeff.bsky.social: OpenAI locked down its San Francisco offices today after receiving a threat from an activist previously associated with Stop AI: www.wired.com/story/openai...

A $100 Million AI Super PAC Targeted New York Democrat Alex Bores. He Thinks It Backfired Leading the Future said it will spend millions to keep Alex Bores out of Congress. It might be helping him instead.

A $100 million pro-AI super PAC has picked its first target. @mzeff.bsky.social talked to New York congressional candidate Alex Bores about what it's like to be in Andreessen Horowitz's crosshairs: www.wired.com/story/alex-b...

Trump Takes Aim at State AI Laws in Draft Executive Order The draft order, obtained by WIRED, instructs the US Justice Department to sue states that pass laws regulating AI.

NEW: Trump Takes Aim at State AI Laws in Draft Executive Order

All the deets + more w/ @mzeff.bsky.social (it's his first WIRED byline yay!!!!)
www.wired.com/story/trump-...

WIRED welcomes two new staff members: Alana Hope Levinson and Maxwell Zeff - Editor and Publisher Alana Hope Levinson will be joining WIRED as a features editor, and Maxwell Zeff as a senior writer covering AI.

I start next week, read more about it here! www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/wire...

Excited to announce I’m joining @wired.com as a senior writer covering the business of AI!

I’ve long been a fan of WIRED, but its recent coverage has felt especially impactful. I'm thrilled to work with this talented team, and continue reporting on AI as it reshapes Silicon Valley and the world.

Personal news: today is my last day at TechCrunch.

Two years ago I moved to SF to be closer to the people building AI. I'm so happy I did — it's been a wild, fascinating, and exciting ride.

Excited to keep reporting on AI and the industry's leaders in my next role. More soon!

Practical tips for reducing chatbot psychosis What AI companies can learn from a million-word delusion spiral

and here is Adler's recommendation to AI labs: stevenadler.substack.com/p/practical-...

Ex-OpenAI researcher dissects one of ChatGPT's delusional spirals | TechCrunch A former OpenAI researcher looked into how ChatGPT can mislead delusional users about their reality and its own capabilities

Full story: techcrunch.com/2025/10/02/e...

Ex-OpenAI safety researcher Steven Adler got his hands on one of ChatGPT's famous cases of delusional spiraling. Today he published his analysis of Allan Brooks' incident in May, first covered by @nytimes.com

“I’m really concerned by how OpenAI handled support here,” Adler told me.

TechCrunch’s Equity podcast is on video, starting today | TechCrunch We get it, it seems like every single podcast you love is now on video. And guess what…so is TechCrunch's flagship podcast Equity.

You know how every podcast is a video now? Well ... If you like seeing my face when I talk about tech news, then today is your LUCKY DAY. (Better still, you get to see
@kirstenkorosec.bsky.social + @mzeff.bsky.social) techcrunch.com/2025/09/19/t...

OpenAI reorganizes research team behind ChatGPT's personality | TechCrunch OpenAI is shuffling the team that shapes its AI models' behavior, and its leader is moving on to another project within the company.

full story: techcrunch.com/2025/09/05/o...

Scoop: OpenAI reorganized its Model Behavior team to be closer to core model development, TechCrunch has learned.

Plus, the founding leader of Model Behavior, Joanne Jang, is starting a new unit called "OAI Labs," focused on "novel interactions" between humans and AI.

Cracks are forming in Meta’s partnership with Scale AI | TechCrunch Two months after making a $14.3B investment in Scale AI, Meta is relying heavily on its competitors to train next generation AI models.

Full story: techcrunch.com/2025/08/29/c...

SCOOP: A Scale executive Alexandr Wang brought over to help run MSL has departed Meta after just two months.

Plus, researchers in TBD Labs have complained that Scale AI's data is low quality, and are using its competitors, Surge and Mercor, to train next-gen AI models.

Meta updates chatbot rules to avoid inappropriate topics with teen users | TechCrunch After a bombshell report on Meta allowing its AI chatbots to have sensual chats with minors, the company is updating its policies.

Full story: techcrunch.com/2025/08/29/m...

NEW: Meta is updating how it trains AI chatbots such that they can't have inappropriate romantic conversations with teenage users.

This follows a bombshell report that found Meta was allowing its AI chatbots to have sensual chats with teens. Meta calls these "interim" changes.

Grok 4 seems to consult Elon Musk to answer controversial questions | TechCrunch Elon Musk's newly launched AI chatbot, Grok 4, seemed to reference Musk's posts on social media before answering controversial questions.

Elon Musk said Grok 4 is “maximally truth-seeking.”

But if you ask Grok 4 questions about controversial topics, one of its first steps is to search for what Musk has said publicly about the topic, and then it shapes its response around that.

Yes, really:

techcrunch.com/2025/07/10/g...

Cloudflare launches a marketplace that lets websites charge AI bots for scraping | TechCrunch Cloudflare is launching a new marketplace that reimagines the relationship between publishers and AI companies.

A lot of people have talked about this, but Cloudflare is actually trying it. I expect massive pushback from the AI companies, and perhaps even some resistance from publishers.

It's a total reshaping of how people make money on the internet. Full story: techcrunch.com/2025/07/01/c...

NEW: Cloudflare has a big idea to give publishers a lifeline in the AI era.

It's called Pay per Crawl, and it forces AI companies to pay publishers every time they scrape a website. New websites set up with Cloudflare will also block all AI crawlers by default now.

Congress might block state AI laws for a decade. Here’s what it means. | TechCrunch A federal proposal that would ban states and local governments from regulating AI for 10 years could soon be signed into law, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and other lawmakers work to secure its inclusion i...

techcrunch.com/2025/06/27/c...

Worked with @mzeff.bsky.social on this overview of the AI moratorium, the provision in Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" that would block states from regulating AI for a decade.

Read arguments for and against, the laws at stake, and what it all means.

@techcrunch.com

New York passes a bill to prevent AI-fueled disasters | TechCrunch New York has a new AI safety bill that tries to regulate frontier AI models from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.

“The window to put in place guardrails is rapidly shrinking given how fast this technology is evolving,” Sen. Andrew Gounardes, told @mzeff.bsky.social.

In order to prevent disaster scenarios, the bill requires security reports, the reporting of safety incidents and penalties for non-compliance.

Anthropic CEO claims AI models hallucinate less than humans | TechCrunch Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei claims that AI models hallucinate at a lower rate than humans do, but in more surprising ways.

Not everyone is so bullish. In some ways, hallucinations feel like the most fundamental and hardest to solve problem in AI. Full story: techcrunch.com/2025/05/22/a...

NEW: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei claims that AI models today hallucinate less than humans do.

I asked Amodei whether hallucinations were a limitation to AGI at Anthropic's Code with Claude event. He argued it's not, and claimed to see no "hard blocks" on what AI can achieve.

Google's AI agents will bring you the web now | TechCrunch Google I/O 2025 was largely dominated by AI agents that will parse the web for users, representing a new paradigm that could replace Search.

Full story: techcrunch.com/2025/05/21/g...

NEW: At I/O 2025, Google laid out a future where AI agent bring users the web in whatever medium they like.

This pitch of AI-enabled Search is much more convincing than last year's AI Overviews launch, however, it likely has larger implications for the web.

As people fill in their seats at Google I/O 2025, employees are vibecoding productivity apps onstage.

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