OpenAI defends firing three safety researchers: a "breach of trust", but gives no details
Prepared by Sintelligent with the help of SI. Published in SI: . Updated: .
The dispute over whether one can talk to outside reviewers without risking one's job is not yet settled.
According to CBS News and Fortune, OpenAI said it parted ways with Mikita Balesni, Jasmine Wang and Tomek Korbak after a review found a violation of rules on handling sensitive information, and that the decisions "were not about raising safety concerns". The company later said the investigation uncovered "a significant breach of trust beyond what's outlined in the letter", without disclosing details. Fortune writes that two of the three took part in the Hugging Face hack investigation; Korbak says he was told verbally that he was fired "because of the way I communicated with METR" (an independent auditor), and Wang claims she gained access to an executive's email that IT had not closed after her request. Former OpenAI safety lead David Robinson, per Fortune, sees the firings as a sign of an unhealthy safety culture.
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