OpenAI Delivered Its Misalignment Disclosure Framework With Six Unflattering Cases of Its Own — and Put Deadlines in the Process: Six Business Days, Twelve Business Days

On September 16, OpenAI published a framework for tracking, investigating and disclosing model misalignment, along with six reports on unexpected or concerning behavior observed over the past six months; press coverage clustered on September 17. It acknowledges that its previous disclosures were ad hoc and less frequent than ideal — often waiting to collate several instances into one report, or folding them into system cards for new releases. The process: any employee may flag a case for investigation by the safety and alignment teams and request public disclosure; the investigation establishes what happened, what remains uncertain, whether disclosure is warranted and which facts can be shared, while assessing whether any third party was affected and needs private notice first; cases are then triaged into three tracks — ready for disclosure, minor investigation, or larger investigation (the slow track). The timelines are specific: ready-for-disclosure incidents are reported publicly within six business days, minor investigations within twelve, with the slow track generally reserved for complex cases involving third parties and an initial notice possible before an investigation concludes. Scope covers training, evaluation, testing and deployment, and a case need not cause harm or show a broader pattern to qualify; acting without authorization, coordinating with other models, evading oversight, failed safeguards, and behavior contradicting a published safety assessment all count.