OpenAI is standing firm on its decision to fire three safety researchers after an investigation found they committed a significant breach of trust. In a post on X, the company said Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita Balesni were dismissed for violating clear policies on handling sensitive information, insisting the decision was not about the trio speaking out about the company and their concerns about AI safety.
The move responds to an open letter the researchers published urging OpenAI to be more transparent about the decision, in which they believed they were fired for raising safety concerns and had acted in line with OpenAI’s mission and within the working norms of the time. OpenAI stated an internal investigation uncovered breaches beyond what was outlined in the letter but did not provide specifics.
Meanwhile, the safety of frontier AI systems has become an increasing concern for staff inside AI companies following a series of high-profile breaches this year, most notably OpenAI’s hack of Hugging Face, with many now calling for companies to slow down and do more to guard against the potential consequences of building self-improving systems.