OpenAI’s data suggests that frontier models are hiding their thoughts because developers optimize for capability and compute

Maximilian Schreiner View the LinkedIn Profile of Maximilian Schreiner Nov 12, 2026 Nano Banana Pro prompted by THE DECODER Frontier models like GPT-6 Astra are becoming harder for safety monitors to see into. OpenAI’s new research identifies which training steps are responsible and shows that the loss of transparency isn’t purely a law of nature but is tied to decisions about performance and cost. To keep tabs on modern AI agents, safety researchers monitor their chains of thought (CoT). Before a reasoning model answers, it writes out its intermediate steps on a digital scratchpad that can reveal planned deception. Early on, though,…