3 fired OpenAI researchers release letter saying their axing will leave ‘chilling’ effects on company culture

OpenAI fired three employees last week after the company said an internal investigation found they mishandled sensitive information.

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images Three former OpenAI safety researchers said they were abruptly fired from the company last week.

Each employee said on X that they were only given verbal reasons for their firing.

The employees said their firings will have a "chilling" impact on OpenAI's "open culture." Three former OpenAI researchers released a letter on Thursday saying they were abruptly fired last week and that the move will have a "chilling" effect on company culture.

In a letter titled "OpenAI cannot make AI safe on its own," the trio wrote that OpenAI is "not a normal company" and that working with third parties to address safety risks with the "freedom to do so without fear" is a key component of working there.

The letter, which was addressed to OpenAI's safety committees, was shared on social media by Mikita Balesni, one of the fired employees who worked on AI alignment.

Tomek Korbak and Jasmine Wang, both of whom worked on safety, were also fired and signed the letter.

A spokesperson for OpenAI said in a statement to Business Insider that an internal investigation found that the three employees violated company policies regarding access to and handling of sensitive information.

The employees wrote on their individual social media accounts that they received only verbal explanations for their firings and that they all acted within the bounds of their employment.

"The reasons that we were provided for our terminations are simply not adding up," Wang wrote on X .

Balesni wrote in a post that he was told the company no longer trusts him because he was "speaking too much to third party safety organizations." "I never shared company IP.

The work I was doing was coordinated with my reporting line, research leadership, and the board," Balesni wrote.

Korbak wrote on a separate post that he was verbally told he was fired because "of the way I communicated with METR," a third-party research nonprofit that evaluates AI models and safety risks.

"To be clear, talking to METR was my job," he wrote.