OpenAI says it didn’t fire 3 safety researchers for 'speaking out' on AI risks

Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI.

Heather Diehl/Getty Images OpenAI says its recent firing of three AI safety researchers was unrelated to "raising safety concerns or speaking out." The ChatGPT maker said the trio violated policies on handling sensitive information.

The ex-researchers warned in an open letter that their firings will have a "chilling" effect.

OpenAI on Friday doubled down on its decision to fire three AI safety researchers , saying they were axed for mishandling sensitive information, not for voicing concerns about the technology's risks.

In a new statement, the Sam Altman -led company said it parted ways with Jasmine Wang, Mikita Balesni, and Tomek Korbak after an internal investigation found they had "violated clear policies on handling sensitive information." "Our internal investigation uncovered a significant breach of trust beyond what's outlined in the letter they published and we stand by the decision to not continue their employment," OpenAI said.

The AI lab added, "We want to be very clear that these decisions were not about raising safety concerns or speaking out." The company also said that it encourages those types of conversations and considers them "essential to making the right decisions." The three fired researchers released a letter on social media a day earlier, addressed to OpenAI's safety committees, warning that their abrupt terminations would have a "chilling" effect on company culture .

The letter, titled "OpenAI cannot make AI safe on its own," said that the ex-researchers 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." The trio wrote in the letter that AI is "not a normal technology" and that OpenAI is "not a normal company." "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," the letter read.

"The freedom to do so without fear, and to have well-defined internal procedures that enable this work, is itself an essential safety mechanism." In its Friday response, the ChatGPT-maker said it agreed that preserving the "monitorability" of frontier models requires industry-wide commitment, including from OpenAI.

"Monitorability has long been a core piece of our research program, and something we continue to invest significant resources in," the company said.

OpenAI said it was "deeply sad" about the outcome involving the former researchers and praised their contributions to AI safety at the company.

"These decisions were not about them raising safety concerns," the company said.