Three former OpenAI researchers say company fired them after raising AI safety concerns, letter says

Three former OpenAI researchers — Mikita Balesni, Tomek Korbak and Jasmine Wang — say the company fired them after they raised concerns about the safety of advanced AI work. The researchers published an open letter that, according to WION, warned that their dismissals signal a shift in internal norms and could chill internal scrutiny at OpenAI. The letter said, 'Our firing leaves us worried that the norms inside OpenAI are shifting.'

OpenAI provided a different account to AFP, telling the news agency on October 1 that an internal investigation concluded the three had mishandled sensitive information outside established procedures, which the company said violated policy and undermined trust. WION reports that an excerpt of an internal memo quoted an OpenAI research executive saying, 'We do not terminate employees for raising concerns.'

WION says the researchers framed their departures as a consequence of prioritising safety over near-term corporate interests; the outlet reports the trio argued that sudden terminations of staff who raise concerns endanger broader safeguards. Mikita Balesni later posted on X that he believed the dismissals were driven by their safety emphasis, breaking a weeklong silence after the terminations became public, WION reports. The account WION published includes the researchers’ claim that nearly 400 OpenAI employees had signed a petition in July calling for an industry-wide slowdown in the development of advanced AI models. WION presents that petition figure as part of the researchers’ case that internal pressure existed for slower, safer development. OpenAI's statement to AFP, cited by WION, places the issue on procedural grounds: the company said its investigation found policy violations related to handling sensitive information. WION also reports the internal memo line denying that OpenAI fires employees for raising concerns, a claim the company used in its internal communications according to the outlet. Other outlets ran related headlines corroborating that former OpenAI researchers allege they were dismissed over safety warnings, but WION's article contains the detailed timeline and quotations cited here. The dispute between the researchers' public letter and OpenAI's account to AFP frames the immediate disagreement over whether the firings reflect safety-related retaliation or violations of company procedures.