OpenAI researchers flag safety concerns in letter after reported dismissals

In a post on X, the researchers outlined their concerns in a letter addressed to OpenAI’s Safety and Security Committee, Safety Advisory Group and Mission Advisory Council. ​Amid a growing wave of researchers being fired or leaving major AI companies, three OpenAI researchers Tomek Korbak, Jasmine Wang and Mikita Balesni have reportedly been dismissed after raising concerns about safety practices at the company.

In a post on X, the researchers outlined their concerns in a letter addressed to OpenAI’s Safety and Security Committee, Safety Advisory Group and Mission Advisory Council. “We could raise safety concerns and disagree openly, and we were encouraged to draw on the expertise of independent safety organisations.

This is part of what made OpenAI special, and why we are immensely proud to have been part of the team,” wrote the researchers to the council.

They have noted in the letter that AI is not a normal technology, and OpenAI is not a normal company and those of us who work on safety see risks before anyone else, and we rely on close collaboration with outside experts to work out how to address them. “The freedom to do so without fear, and to have well-defined internal procedures that enable this work, is itself an essential safety mechanism,” they further wrote.

Three researchers in the letter reiterated that the path to superintelligence can be navigated safely if the people closest to the risks can no longer work in high-trust, high-bandwidth ways with each other and with third parties.