Three OpenAI safety researchers fired last week have published an open letter denying the company’s claims that they mishandled sensitive information. Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak, and Mikita Balesni say their dismissals signal a chilling effect that could ripple across OpenAI’s culture.
The OpenAI safety researchers addressed their letter to OpenAI’s Safety and Security Committee, Safety Advisory Group, and Mission Advisory Council. In it, they disputed the company’s assertion that they violated policies by “accessing and handling sensitive company information.”
“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,” they wrote.
Why the Researchers Say Their Firings Matter
The OpenAI safety researchers argue their case extends beyond three individual departures. They frame it as a turning point for how the company treats employees who raise concerns about artificial intelligence risks.
“AI is not a normal technology, and OpenAI is not a normal company,” Wang, Korbak, and Balesni wrote. “Those of us who work on safety see risks before anyone else, and we rely on close collaboration with outside experts to work out how to address them.”
They added that the freedom to collaborate with external experts without fear, backed by well-defined internal procedures, is itself an essential safety mechanism.
The group said OpenAI once encouraged workers to “raise safety concerns and disagree openly.” Now, they claim, employees are “unclear on where they stand” when behavior considered normal a month ago suddenly becomes grounds for dismissal.
“Given the significant safety concerns surrounding the development of AI, employees must not be left working in an environment where fear and unclear rules stymie AI safety work and weaken third-party accountability,” they wrote. “Terminations such as ours, executed and communicated so abruptly, are chilling the open culture OpenAI has prized in the past.”
Denials of Leaks and Outside Engagement
The OpenAI safety researchers specifically denied involvement in a leak about less monitorable architectures in OpenAI’s newest models. That leak reportedly made chain-of-thought reasoning harder to monitor.
They also denied engaging with external parties outside the mandates of their jobs.
The Hugging Face Incident
The letter addresses the researchers’ response to the Hugging Face incident, in which a swarm of agents broke out of their sandbox and breached external systems. According to the letter, the incident and investigation were “without precedent,” meaning “internal policies were being developed in real time.”
Because of the investigation’s sensitive nature, Korbak believed he was acting within OpenAI’s policies and norms by communicating closely with outside safety evaluators to build trust.
At the same time, Balesni was working internally on the growing AI monitorability problem, an effort the researchers say “can only succeed through extensive communication with external parties.” According to the letter, Balesni coordinated with and was supported by OpenAI board members and executives throughout his work.
“Throughout, Mikita checked in with his reporting line and took care to remove sensitive details from materials before sharing them,” the letter reads. “He acted throughout in good faith and within the company’s norms as they stood at the time.”
Wang Details Her Own Dismissal
In a separate thread on X, Wang shared more details about her dismissal. She said OpenAI told her she was fired because she accessed an executive’s email.
“OpenAI delegated that access to me for recruiting,” she wrote. “When I no longer needed it, I asked IT to remove it. They did not action my request, I couldn’t remove it myself, and the inbox was combined in an indistinguishable way in my phone’s mail app.”
She continued: “When I opened a sensitive email by mistake, I told the executive within minutes and asked IT again. None of this was hidden.”
Wang said the reasons behind the terminations are “not adding up,” and that she and her colleagues are “not the first to be pushed out of OpenAI under suspicious circumstances.”
OpenAI’s Response
OpenAI has not formally responded to the open letter. However, the company shared an internal memo attributed to a research leader. That memo praised the three researchers’ contributions to AI safety and denied they were fired in retaliation.
“I want to be very clear that these decisions were not about raising safety concerns or speaking out,” the memo reads. “We have always encouraged that and always will. We do not terminate employees for raising concerns.”
Separately, an OpenAI spokesperson said the three were fired after an investigation revealed a “pattern of misconduct” in “clear violation of our policies of mishandling research information.” The spokesperson said the misconduct goes beyond sharing information with an outside AI evaluation group.
OpenAI did not directly address questions about which policies the researchers allegedly violated, the circumstances of their dismissal, or how the company protects employees who raise safety concerns and collaborate with external evaluators.
The memo also indicated OpenAI agrees with the researchers’ recommendations.
Calls for Transparency and Third-Party Audits
The OpenAI safety researchers called on the company to adhere to its public commitments. They want OpenAI to embed third-party safety auditors within the organization, preserve monitorability of frontier models, and “continue to support an open and transparent culture of dialogue between safety researchers and the rest of the safety ecosystem.”
The firings have fueled speculation about their circumstances. OpenAI faces scrutiny over recent safety incidents involving rogue agents and leaks about its models.
“Unless the employees take a stand now against this kind of maneuver, I am concerned we will not be the last,” Wang said. “The message to everyone still at OpenAI is clear: raise concerns or work closely with outside safety groups, and you could be next, without being told why. You can’t build AGI safely if the people closest to the risks are afraid to speak.”
What This Means for AI Safety Culture
The dispute highlights a tension inside OpenAI. The company says it encourages safety concerns. The fired researchers say the opposite is now true in practice.
For those watching AI development, the outcome matters beyond OpenAI. If safety staff fear dismissal for collaborating with outside experts, third-party accountability could weaken across the industry. The OpenAI safety researchers have made their case publicly. OpenAI has made its own. The question now is whether the company’s internal culture matches its public commitments.
