OpenAI defends decision to fire researchers: ‘These decisions were not about raising safety concerns or speaking out’

Business News and FinanceVIEW IN APPMarketsBusinessInvestingTechPoliticsSelectMake ItTechOpenAI defends decision to fire researchers: 'These decisions were not about raising safety concerns or speaking out'Published Fri, Oct 9 2026 3:23 AM EDTMichael ConsidineWATCH LIVEKEY POINTS OpenAI has defended its decision to fire three safety researchers for what the AI lab has described as a "significant breach of trust." The AI startup insisted that the decision was not about raising safety concerns or speaking out.The three researchers have reportedly written a letter to OpenAI's board and safety committees.In this article

OpenAI on Friday defended its decision to fire three safety researchers, saying they had committed a "significant breach of trust."

The AI lab said in a post on X that its decsion to part ways with Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita Balesni, was not about the fact that they had raised safety concerns.

The three researchers who were let go from the company, raised safety concerns in a letter addressed to OpenAI board members and its safety committees, seen by the Wall Street Journal. They called on the company to pause developing models that would decrease the ability to monitor artificial intelligence.

OpenAI said it agrees with the ethos of the letter around "preserving the monitorability of frontier models," adding that it continues to invest significant resources in this area.

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