Fired OpenAI researchers warn of ‘suspicious’ dismissals after AI safety warnings

Three former OpenAI safety researchers have questioned the reasons behind their dismissals, alleging they were pushed out after raising concerns about artificial intelligence safety.

Mikita Balesni, Tomak Korbak and Jasmine Wang were fired last week, according to CNN, after helping investigate an incident involving OpenAI agents accessing AI company Hugging Face without authorisation during testing.

Korbak said he was dismissed over his communication with external AI safety organisation METR, while Balesni said he was accused of “speaking too much to third party safety organizations.”

Wang said she was fired after accessing an executive’s email account, despite previously requesting that her access be removed.

“The reasons that we were provided for our terminations are simply not adding up,” Wang wrote on X.

The researchers also raised concerns about OpenAI’s willingness to work with independent safety organisations.

However, OpenAI denied that the dismissals were linked to employees raising safety concerns.

The company said the researchers were dismissed “for violating our policies on accessing and handling sensitive company information.”

“Our investigation confirmed that these individuals mishandled sensitive information outside established company procedures, violating our policies and breaking the trust essential to our work,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.

Balesni also claimed former colleagues were increasingly afraid to speak openly about safety issues.