Former OpenAI Researchers Warn Their Firings Could Have a “Chilling” Effect on AI Safety

Firings of three OpenAI safety researchers expose a gap between internal confidentiality rules and independent AI auditing obligations Three AI safety researchers lost their jobs at OpenAI, and the manner of their departure may matter more than the firings themselves. Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak, and Mikita Balesni were dismissed following an internal investigation that OpenAI says found violations involving the handling of sensitive information. The researchers dispute that framing, and neither account is fully established in public reporting. The dispute underneath both versions raises a governance question the entire AI industry needs to answer: can safety researchers do their jobs if communicating with independent evaluators puts their employment at risk?