OpenAI says it fired three safety researchers over a "breach of trust," not for raising safety concerns
A note from our research leaders: Last week we parted ways with Jasmine, Mikita, and Tomek after a thorough investigation found they violated clear policies on handling sensitive information. Our internal investigation uncovered a significant breach of trust beyond what’s outlined in the letter they published and we stand by the decision to not continue their employment. We generally keep individual employment matters private and don't believe a back and forth would be productive or lead to a resolution, but we want to address the points they raised in their letter directly. - We want to be very clear that these decisions were not about raising safety concerns or speaking out. Safety and research debates happen every day at OpenAI, often spirited and highly critical. We actively encourage these discussions and consider them essential to making the right decisions. We cannot do the work in front of us without a high degree of trust. We will continue to be extremely forgiving of our team making good-faith mistakes. We have not and do not terminate any of our employees for raising concerns. - We are actively finalizing contracts with third-party safety assessors and will announce details in the coming weeks. People across the company have been working really hard on getting these partnerships up and running. We are committed to embedding external assessors and continue to make close collaboration with independent safety organizations a core part of our safety work. Many of our researchers already work with 3p safety organizations productively. - We agree with the letter that preserving the monitorability of frontier models requires an industry-wide commitment, including from OpenAI. Monitorability has long been a core piece of our research program, and something we continue to invest significant resources in (see our publications on Monitoring Monitorability and the subsequent open sourcing of monitorability evals, our system card for GPT-6 Astra, Jakub’s blog and post on X, and the numerous blog posts on our Alignment blog on the topic). We are deeply sad about this outcome. We appreciated Jasmine, Mikita, and Tomek’s contributions to AI safety at OpenAI and their willingness to speak up and challenge ideas. We championed their voices, supported their work, and placed enormous trust in them. These decisions were not about them raising safety concerns. We have always encouraged that and always will.
Context
OpenAI's public answer to the three researchers' letter sets its version against theirs, and how the dispute plays out could affect how openly safety staff at AI labs feel they can speak.
On October 8, Jasmine Wang, Mikita Balesni and Tomek Korbak each posted that OpenAI had fired them the week before, and they published an open letter to the company's safety oversight groups. Balesni wrote that he believes they were fired for prioritizing safety over OpenAI's near term interests, and Wang wrote that the one reason she was given was that she accessed an executive's email. The researchers' side is the subject of story 24 in the October 8 deck.
- CNBC: OpenAI denies researchers were fired for speaking out about AI concerns
- AP: OpenAI fires 3 safety researchers in a breach of trust dispute
- TechCrunch: Fired OpenAI safety researchers dispute misconduct claims
- CNN: Fired OpenAI safety researchers say they were pushed out
- Open letter from Korbak, Wang and Balesni
- Mikita Balesni on X, October 8
- Jasmine Wang on X, October 8
- Tomek Korbak on X, October 8
- Advance Intelligence, October 8: the researchers' account
Deep dive
In its note, OpenAI says it parted ways with the three researchers after a thorough investigation found they violated clear policies on handling sensitive information, and that the investigation uncovered a significant breach of trust beyond what their letter describes. OpenAI does not say what the violations were. It says it generally keeps employment matters private and does not believe a back and forth would be productive.
OpenAI says the decisions were not about raising safety concerns or speaking out, and that it has not and does not fire employees for raising concerns. It also answers two points from the letter. It says it is finalizing contracts with third party safety assessors and will share details in the coming weeks, and it says it agrees that preserving the monitorability of frontier models needs an industry wide commitment, pointing to its own research on the topic.
The researchers tell a different story, and their accounts are claims too. In posts on October 8, Balesni said he believes they were fired for putting safety first. Wang said the only reason she was given was that she accessed an executive's email. Korbak said OpenAI's head of safety told him the company no longer trusted him and that a guard walked him out. Their letter, according to TechCrunch, denies mishandling sensitive information outside company procedures.
OpenAI told CNN that the violations went beyond mishandling information with an outside evaluation group. Neither side has released documents that would settle the dispute.
What to expect next
Watch for the third party safety assessor contracts OpenAI says it will announce in the coming weeks, since that is a concrete promise anyone can check.
Also watch for a reply from the three researchers to OpenAI's note, and for any written record from either side about what the investigation found. Until then, OpenAI's account and the researchers' account remain competing claims. Reactions from other safety staff and outside evaluators such as METR will show whether the dispute affects how openly people at AI labs raise concerns.