Fired OpenAI safety researchers say they were pushed out over ‘suspicious’ circumstances

Three OpenAI safety researchers say they were fired from the company and are openly questioning the reasons for their dismissals.

The three researchers, Mikita Balesni, Tomak Korbak and Jasmine Wang, all worked on AI safety or alignment within the company, making sure the AI systems did what their human operators intended for them to do in a safe manner.

But the three say they were unceremoniously let go last week, weeks after they say they played key parts in investigating an incident in which OpenAI agents autonomously hacked into AI company Hugging Face while undergoing testing.

Korback said on X that he was told he was being fired because of how he communicated with AI safety organization METR, which OpenAI partnered with to investigate the Hugging Face incident. Korback said he was OpenAI's "main technical point of contact" with METR.

Korback said he believes he was fired because "for months, I'd been raising safety concerns that we're losing the ability to monitor what AI agents think, one of our best tools for catching when they misbehave." He added he's worried his firing will be used as a pretext for OpenAI to stop working as closely with METR, which is well respected in the AI safety world.

Balesni echoed Korbak's theories for why they were fired, writing on X that he was told he was "speaking too much to third party safety organizations." He said he understood OpenAI was implying he leaked OpenAI intellectual property, which he denies.

The three firings come on the heels of a wave AI industry insiders expressing dire safety concerns. And while several former AI staffers have publicly resigned over safety concerns, the three OpenAI researchers instead allege they were pushed out for expressing similar concerns.

Wang said she was told she was fired because she "accessed an executive's email," which she said she was given for recruiting purposes. Wang said she had repeatedly asked to for her access to be revoked, but when she accidentally accessed a "sensitive email," she told the executive "within minutes" and told OpenAI's IT team again.

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

"We were not the first to be pushed out of OpenAI under suspicious circumstances," she added. "Unless the employees take a stand now against this kind of maneuver, I am concerned we will not be the last."

The three researchers wrote a letter to OpenAI leadership expressing their concerns and the reasons for their firings. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the firings and the letter .