Fired OpenAI safety researchers dispute misconduct claims and warn of chilling effect

Three OpenAI safety researchers, Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak, and Mikita Balesni, were fired after OpenAI said they mishandled sensitive information by sharing it with an outside AI safety organization.

In an open letter, they deny the claims, argue the dismissals will deter employees from raising safety concerns, and call on OpenAI to keep its public commitments on third-party safety auditing.

OpenAI says the firings followed an investigation into a pattern of misconduct and denies they were retaliation for safety concerns.