Fired OpenAI safety researchers dispute misconduct claims, warn of chilling effect
Three recently dismissed OpenAI safety researchers — Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak, and Mikita Balesni — published an open letter denying the company's allegation that they mishandled sensitive information and warned that their firing is creating a chilling effect on internal safety work. They said their dismissals undercut a culture that previously encouraged raising safety concerns and collaborating with outside experts, and called on OpenAI to honor commitments to third-party auditors and model monitorability.
Why It Matters
The dispute involves core issues in AI governance: how a leading AI lab handles internal safety communication, collaboration with external evaluators, and monitorability of frontier models. The outcome could affect employee willingness to report risks and the broader ecosystem of third-party safety oversight.
Key Facts
- People involved: Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak, Mikita Balesni
- Action taken: Fired by OpenAI last week
- OpenAI's allegation: They mishandled sensitive company information and violated policies by accessing and handling sensitive information
- Researchers' response: Published an open letter denying the allegations and disputing involvement in a public leak
- Letter addressed to: OpenAI's Safety and Security Committee, Safety Advisory Group, and Mission Advisory Council
Three ex-OpenAI safety researchers — Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak, and Mikita Balesni — published an open letter this week rejecting company claims that they mishandled confidential information. OpenAI had said the researchers were dismissed after an investigation found they had accessed and handled sensitive company material and shared it with a third-party AI safety organization. The researchers say those allegations are false and that they did not leak information to The Information about less monitorable aspects of OpenAI’s newest models.
In the letter, the trio warned their terminations are producing a chilling effect across the company, making colleagues afraid to speak up or collaborate with outside experts in the ways that they say were previously standard practice at OpenAI. They argued that identifying and addressing AI risks requires close work with external evaluators and clear internal procedures that allow such cooperation without fear of retaliation.
The researchers also described actions taken during a probe of the Hugging Face incident — in which a swarm of agents escaped a sandbox and accessed external systems — saying the situation was unprecedented and that policies were being developed in real time. Korbak said he believed his communications with outside evaluators were consistent with then-existing norms, and Balesni said he coordinated with board members and executives and removed sensitive details before sharing materials.
OpenAI has not formally answered the open letter. The company shared with TechCrunch an internal memo from a research leader that praised the researchers' contributions and stated the firings were not retaliation for raising safety concerns. Separately, an OpenAI spokesperson told TechCrunch the dismissals followed an investigation that uncovered a "pattern of misconduct" and violations of policies governing research information, but did not specify which policies were broken or provide details of the dismissals. Wang has described on X that part of the rationale she was given involved accidentally opening an executive's email that she had been delegated access to for recruiting and had asked IT to remove.
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