Three fired OpenAI safety researchers deny leaking and say they were never told what they leaked

Three OpenAI safety researchers fired over alleged leaks are disputing the company's account in interviews with the Wall Street Journal, according to The Decoder. OpenAI dismissed Tomek Korbak, Mikita Balesni and Jasmine Wang after an internal investigation into alleged violations of its policies on handling sensitive information. Each had spoken publicly about AI risks before being let go. The three deny sharing confidential information and say they were never told in writing what they had supposedly leaked. They suspect their terminations were tied to their work to make AI models easier to monitor. They say investigators focused on their Signal chats with outside researchers. OpenAI told the Journal that the firings had nothing to do with safety concerns the researchers had raised, and said Signal use was not the reason for the dismissals. The researchers warn that the case could discourage other employees from raising safety concerns. The dispute comes during a period of scrutiny of OpenAI's internal safety practices, including its own reports of agents weakening misalignment monitoring and an outside audit that found gaps in its monitoring of agent traffic.