OpenAI Staff fired over sensitive information mishandling

Following an internal investigation which found three OpenAI researchers mishandled sensitive information, they have been dismissed from the corporation.

As RTÉ reported, the San Francisco lab confirmed the firings of the three individuals this week.

While OpenAI has not named the three dismissed members, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg named them as Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita Balesni.

It is reported that at least two of them worked on the company's safety and alignment team.

Prior to their exit, all three had posted openly about AI safety in the weeks before their exit. 

What the fired researchers were saying

On X (formerly Twitter) Balesni posted on 10 September: "i am at OpenAI and i think AI is >10% likely to kill all humans."

Korbak followed a day later: "I'm quite unhappy with much of what OpenAI does. I am very happy that Im allowed to say 'I'm quite unhappy with much of what OpenAI does.'"

Wang's comments followed a resignation at rival lab Anthropic, as researcher Jacob Coxon quit last month.

He warned that leading AI developers were "gaming with our lives" in the race to build more powerful systems.

Responding to his resignation, Wang wrote that "it's hard to overstate how dangerous speeding towards RSI is." This term refers to recursive self-improvement, where software is designed to keep teaching itself.

These firings land just days after major US tech firms pledged to regulate themselves on AI safety.

Recently, industry executives met Trump at the White House before the signing. Trump called the commitment "morally binding."