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

Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak, and Mikita Balesni, the three safety researchers that OpenAI fired last week , have published an open letter denying the firm’s claims that they mishandled sensitive information outside of established company procedures and warned that their dismissal signals a chilling effect that will have ripple effects across the company’s culture.

“We have become concerned that internal and external communications around our firing have made our former colleagues afraid to speak and operate in ways that, until last week, were an integral part of working at OpenAI,” the researchers wrote Thursday in an open letter to OpenAI’s Safety and Security Committee, Safety Advisory Group, and Mission Advisory Council.

The researchers were dismissed last week after allegedly sharing confidential company information with a third-party AI safety organization. OpenAI said at the time that they violated the company’s policies by “accessing and handling sensitive company information.”