Felix Binder is an AI researcher at Meta whose work covers AI alignment and cognitive science. He earned a doctorate at the University of California, San Diego, and has studied language-model introspection and generalization. His doctorate is in cognitive science. He also was a visiting scholar at Stanford University, and his doctoral research examined how people use their surroundings to solve planning problems.
Case
OpenAI cites information-handling violations in firing three safety researchers. Their individual accounts and joint letter dispute those reasons and warn that the dismissals could weaken outside scrutiny of AI risks.
Role at the time: AI researcher at Meta, commenting personally
Statement summary
Binder says the dismissals make him skeptical that OpenAI can be trusted to disclose risks and incidents transparently.
“firing a good fraction of their safety researchers afterwards makes me skeptical they can be trusted to be transparent about risks and incidents”
The conduct under scrutiny is the firings, which Binder criticizes. His approval of the separate investigation does not defend the dismissals.
Statement dates: October 8, 2026
Statement dates: October 8, 2026
