Fired OpenAI safety researchers dispute their dismissals in open letter

Three OpenAI safety researchers have posted an open letter to OpenAI disputing their dismissals. Jasmine Wang, Mikita Balesni and Tomek Korbak wrote that the "very public manner" of the company's communications around the firings could have a "chilling" effect on employees at a time when "the world's safety depends on them." Last week, OpenAI dismissed three employees who allegedly shared information with an external AI safety organization. The company said in a statement that the employees "violat[ed] our policies on accessing and handling sensitive company information... breaking the trust essential to our work." In the face of recent serious and potentially illegal OpenAI agent hacks of Hugging Face and other organizations, though, the firing of safety employees raised awkward questions and caught the attention of lawmakers.