OpenAI defends firing three safety researchers, cites information policy breach

OpenAI has publicly pushed back on an open letter from three researchers it recently fired. The company says they were let go for mishandling sensitive company information, not for speaking up about AI safety. What happened The three researchers are Jasmine Wang, Mikita Balesni, and Tomek Korbak. All three were terminated the week before October 8, 2026. On October 8, they published an open letter disputing the misconduct claims against them. They argued that their actions were consistent with how things normally worked inside the company. OpenAI responded publicly the following day, October 9. Its message was blunt: the firings followed violations of internal policies on handling sensitive information. The company said an internal investigation pointed to what it described as a “significant breach of trust” stemming from the researchers’ conduct. It explicitly denied that the dismissals were retaliation for raising safety concerns. OpenAI also said vigorous internal debate about safety happens regularly at the company. At the same time, the company declined to go into further detail, citing confidentiality around employment matters. The researchers’ warning The letter was not only...