OpenAI defends firing three safety researchers, cites information policy breach

The company says the dismissals of Jasmine Wang, Mikita Balesni, and Tomek Korbak had nothing to do with their safety advocacy OpenAI has publicly pushed back on an open letter from three researchers it recently fired. The company says they were let go for mishandling sensitive company information, not for speaking up about AI safety. The three researchers are Jasmine Wang, Mikita Balesni, and Tomek Korbak. All three were terminated the week before October 8, 2026. On October 8, they published an open letter disputing the misconduct claims against them.

Source: Crypto Briefing