OpenAI terminated three safety researchers, Jasmine Wang, Mikita Balesni, and Tomek Korbak, the week before October 8, 2026. The researchers published an open letter disputing the misconduct allegations, arguing that their actions were consistent with standard internal practices. OpenAI responded the following day, stating that the firings resulted from violations of internal policies on handling sensitive information, describing it as a significant breach of trust. The company explicitly denied that the dismissals constituted retaliation for raising AI safety concerns. The researchers warned that the terminations could create a chilling effect on OpenAI’s internal culture and hinder collaboration with external safety organizations such as METR.
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