Three AI safety researchers fired by @OpenAI are now calling on the company to restrict AI development if it reduces our ability to monitor the models' reasoning! In a letter to OpenAI's board, the former employees demand that AI companies preserve access to chain-of-thought monitoring and cooperate with external safety auditors. The researchers were reportedly fired for sharing confidential information with an outside AI safety organization. They dispute the allegations and claim their dismissals are chilling internal debate. OpenAI denies firing them for raising safety concerns. The underlying issue is legitimate: understanding how AI models reason is valuable. But turning interpretability into a prerequisite for further progress risks giving the AI safety movement an effective veto over increasingly capable models.