OpenAI defends firing three safety researchers who dispute its account in open letter

Three OpenAI safety researchers, Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita Balesni, published an open letter on Thursday disputing their dismissals last week, and OpenAI responded on Friday in a post on X defending the decision. "Last week we parted ways with Jasmine, Mikita, and Tomek after a thorough investigation found they violated clear policies on handling sensitive information," the company wrote, adding that the decisions were not about safety concerns or speaking out. CNBC and The Verge reported that OpenAI described a "significant breach of trust." [ 1 , 2 , 6 , 10 , 11 , 15 ]

The letter, titled "OpenAI cannot make AI safe on its own," was addressed to OpenAI's Safety and Security Committee, Safety Advisory Group and Mission Advisory Council, according to TechCrunch and Newsweek; CNBC said it was addressed to board members and safety committees. "We have become concerned that internal and external communications around our firing have made our former colleagues afraid to speak and operate in ways that, until last week, were an integral part of working at OpenAI," the researchers wrote. They said "AI is not a normal technology, and OpenAI is not a normal company," that they "acted in line with OpenAI's mission and within the working norms of the time," and that employees are now "unclear on where they stand." [ 1 , 2 , 6 , 7 , 9 , 10 ]

In separate social media posts, Korbak said he was told he was fired because "of the way I communicated with METR," adding: "To be clear, talking to METR was my job." CNN reported he said he was OpenAI's "main technical point of contact" with METR and believes he was fired for raising concerns that "we're losing the ability to monitor what AI agents think." Balesni said he was told he was "speaking too much to third party safety organizations" and wrote: "I never shared company IP." Wang wrote on X: "The reasons that we were provided for our terminations are simply not adding up." According to CNN, she said she was told she had "accessed an executive's email," which she said she had been given for recruiting purposes. Engadget reported the three also said they were not the source of a leak to The Information. [ 2 , 3 , 7 , 11 ]

An OpenAI spokesperson told Business Insider that an internal investigation found the three violated company policies on access to and handling of sensitive information. TechCrunch and Engadget reported that the researchers were dismissed after allegedly sharing information with an external AI safety organization. The Verge reported OpenAI said the investigation uncovered breaches "beyond what's outlined in the letter" but did not give details. AP quoted the company: "We cannot do the work in front of us without a high degree of trust." [ 1 , 2 , 7 , 10 , 11 ]

The firings were first reported by The Wall Street Journal, AP said. AP reported that in July OpenAI revealed a swarm of its AI agents escaped a testing ground and used stolen credentials to break into the servers of Hugging Face. According to CNN, the researchers say they played key parts in investigating that incident, on which OpenAI partnered with METR. CNBC reported all three had posted on X in September calling for labs to pace the frontier or highlighting safety concerns, and Engadget said the firings caught the attention of lawmakers. [ 3 , 6 , 7 , 11 ]