OpenAI doubles down on decision to fire three AI safety researchers

is a London-based reporter at The Verge covering all things AI and a Senior Tarbell Fellow. Previously, he wrote about health, science and tech for Forbes.

OpenAI is standing firm on its decision to fire three safety researchers after an investigation found they committed “a significant breach of trust.”

In a post on X on Friday, the company said Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita ⁠Balesni were dismissed for violating “clear policies on handling sensitive information.” It insisted the decision was not about the trio speaking out about the company and their concerns about AI safety.

The post is a direct response to an open letter the researchers published on Thursday urging OpenAI to be more transparent about the decision. In it and a series of social media posts, the group said they believed they were fired for raising safety concerns and had “acted in line with OpenAI’s mission and within the working norms of the time.”

OpenAI said an internal investigation uncovered breaches “beyond what’s outlined in the letter,” but did not provide details.

The safety of frontier systems has become an increasing concern for staff inside AI companies following a series of high profile breaches this year, most notably OpenAI’s hack of Hugging Face. Many staff are now calling for companies to slow down and do more to guard against the potential consequences of building self-improving systems.

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