AI researcher Mikita Balesni says he believes OpenAI fired him, Tomek Korbak, and Jasmine Wang for "prioritizing safety over the near-term interests of OpenAI" (Mikita Balesni/@balesni)
Two other safety researchers and I were fired from OpenAI last week. We wrote this letter to leadership. I believe we were fired for prioritizing safety over the near-term interests of OpenAI as a corporation.
AI researcher Mikita Balesni and two colleagues, Tomek Korbak and Jasmine Wang, were recently fired from OpenAI. According to Balesni, they were let go for prioritizing safety over the company's near-term interests.
The three researchers had written an open letter to OpenAI's leadership, expressing concerns that their dismissal could have a chilling effect on the company's culture. They denied claims that they mishandled sensitive information, stating that they had shared confidential company information with a third-party AI safety organization.
OpenAI had cited policy violations, specifically that they had accessed and handled sensitive company information improperly. The researchers argued that their work on safety required close collaboration with outside experts and that this freedom to collaborate was an essential safety mechanism.
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- 3 fired OpenAI researchers release letter saying their axing will leave ‘chilling’ effects on company culture businessinsider.com
- Fired researchers accuse OpenAI of ‘chilling’ safety efforts freemalaysiatoday.com
