OpenAI defends dismissal of three safety researchers

OpenAI is defending its dismissal of three safety researchers after an internal investigation that, the company says, found violations of its policies for handling sensitive information and a significant breach of trust. OpenAI denies that it retaliated against the researchers for raising safety concerns or speaking out.

In an open letter disputing OpenAI’s account, the former employees—Tomek Korbak, Jasmine Wang and Mikita Balesni—identified themselves as the researchers who were dismissed. They said their contacts with outside parties did not, in their view, go beyond their job mandates. They argue that their safety work and collaboration with independent organizations were central to the dismissals.

OpenAI has not publicly identified the information it says was mishandled, detailed the conduct at issue or named the exact policies it says were violated. The available public record therefore does not establish whether misconduct, retaliation over safety work or some combination caused the dismissals.

Korbak said he was told his dismissal concerned communications with the Model Evaluation and Threat Research organization, known as METR. He said he served as OpenAI’s technical point of contact with the outside evaluator during an investigation into an incident involving Hugging Face.

According to the researchers, Balesni’s external work focused on cross-company commitments to preserve model monitorability. Their letter says the effort had been discussed with OpenAI board members and executives, and that sensitive details were removed before materials were shared.

The researchers said Wang had delegated access to an executive’s email for recruiting, had asked OpenAI’s IT team to remove that access and reported accidentally opening a sensitive message within minutes. OpenAI has not publicly released evidence from its investigation that would independently resolve that account.

The three researchers warned that abrupt dismissals and unclear information-sharing rules could chill internal safety debate and work with independent safety groups. OpenAI says it encourages critical debate on safety and research. The company also said it was finalizing contracts with third-party safety assessors and supported an industry-wide commitment to frontier-model monitorability.