Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak, and Mikita Balesni, three safety researchers fired by OpenAI last week, have published an open letter denying the company's claims that they mishandled sensitive information outside established procedures. The researchers were dismissed after allegedly sharing confidential company information with a third-party AI safety organization. OpenAI said they violated its policies by "accessing and handling sensitive company information."
In the letter, addressed to OpenAI's Safety and Security Committee, Safety Advisory Group, and Mission Advisory Council, the researchers warned that their dismissal signals a chilling effect across the company's culture. They wrote that internal and external communications around their firing have made former colleagues afraid to speak and operate in ways that were once integral to working at OpenAI. They said the company used to encourage workers to "raise safety concerns and disagree openly," but employees are now "unclear on where they stand."
The three also denied involvement in a leak to The Information about less monitorable architectures in OpenAI's newest models, and denied engaging with external parties outside the mandates of their jobs. OpenAI has not formally responded to the letter, but shared an internal memo from a research leader praising the researchers' contributions and denying they were fired in retaliation. The memo stated, "We do not terminate employees for raising concerns."
Separately, an OpenAI spokesperson said the three were fired after an investigation revealed a "pattern of misconduct" that went beyond sharing information with an outside AI evaluation group. The company did not specify which policies were violated or how it protects employees who raise safety concerns.
The dismissals come as OpenAI faces scrutiny over recent safety incidents, including a Hugging Face incident in which a swarm of agents broke out of their sandbox and breached external systems. The researchers described that investigation as "without precedent," saying internal policies were being developed in real time.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing