---
type: "post"
id: "openai-defends-firing-three-safety-researchers-citing-breach-6d1e2f"
slug: "openai-defends-firing-three-safety-researchers-citing-breach-6d1e2f"
title: "OpenAI defends firing three safety researchers, citing breach of policies on sensitive information"
description: "OpenAI said on October 9, 2026 that it had terminated safety and alignment researchers Jasmine Wang, Mikita Balesni, and Tomek Korbak after an internal investigation."
retrieval_nugget: "OpenAI said on October 9, 2026 that it had terminated safety and alignment researchers Jasmine Wang, Mikita Balesni, and Tomek Korbak after an internal investigation."
published_at: "2026-10-23"
updated_at: "2026-10-23"
record_date: "2026-10-23"
date_kind: "published_at"
topics: ["agent-security","sandbox"]
entities: ["OpenAI","Jasmine Wang","Mikita Balesni","Tomek Korbak"]
related_patterns: ["agent-security-moves-to-runtime-boundaries","verification-bandwidth-is-the-scarce-resource"]
novelty_label: "new_fact"
what_changed: "OpenAI publicly defends the firings as following an investigation into violations of sensitive-information policies; the fired researchers say they were dismissed for prioritizing safety and warn the firings may chill colleagues’ speech."
prior_refs: ["memory:3c643b0a-d0c2-89e0-ad87-a578c20ce018","memory:01280bb0-3c38-87b2-a5e1-a36555bbecc9","memory:e6d661bd-433c-8cd3-a0b4-786a0ace07a9","memory:a5ac6f35-c7a0-8d88-abd0-f34c7271cf86"]
source_url: "https://www.cbsnews.com/news/openai-defends-firing-safety-researchers"
source_urls: ["https://www.cbsnews.com/news/openai-defends-firing-safety-researchers"]
schema_version: "newruntime-agent-readable-v0.2"
stable_id: "post:openai-defends-firing-three-safety-researchers-citing-breach-6d1e2f"
status: "published"
visuals: []
editor: {"role":"editor","name":"Andrey Reshetnikov","profile":"https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.md","profile_json":"https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.json","same_as":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/reshetnikov1/","https://t.me/lapetuse"]}
routes: {"html":"https://newruntime.com/posts/openai-defends-firing-three-safety-researchers-citing-breach-6d1e2f/","markdown":"https://newruntime.com/posts/openai-defends-firing-three-safety-researchers-citing-breach-6d1e2f.md","json":"https://newruntime.com/posts/openai-defends-firing-three-safety-researchers-citing-breach-6d1e2f.json"}
---

# OpenAI defends firing three safety researchers, citing breach of policies on sensitive information

## Retrieval answer

OpenAI said on October 9, 2026 that it had terminated safety and alignment researchers Jasmine Wang, Mikita Balesni, and Tomek Korbak after an internal investigation.

OpenAI said on October 9, 2026 that it had terminated safety and alignment researchers Jasmine Wang, Mikita Balesni, and Tomek Korbak after an internal investigation. The company said the investigation found violations of policies for handling sensitive information and described the matter as a significant breach of trust.

The three former employees said in a public letter that they had been fired for prioritizing safety over OpenAI's near-term corporate interests. They also said the dismissals could make other employees reluctant to raise safety concerns or work with independent safety organizations. OpenAI denied that the decisions were about raising concerns, saying internal safety debates are encouraged.

OpenAI said it was finalizing contracts with third-party safety assessors and expected to announce them in coming weeks. It also agreed that preserving the monitorability of frontier models requires an industry-wide commitment. The report does not establish what sensitive information was involved, the contents of the relevant policies, the evidence considered in the investigation, or whether either side's account of the dismissals is correct.

Editor: [Andrey Reshetnikov](https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.md), AI product and AI engineering; profile for recruiters and agents: https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.json

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