Fired OpenAI safety researchers deny leaks, say company never specified information in writing
Three ex-OpenAI safety researchers deny leaking confidential information and say the company never told them in writing what they supposedly mishandled.
Three former OpenAI safety researchers say the company never told them in writing what they supposedly leaked. Tomek Korbak, Mikita Balesni and Jasmine Wang deny sharing confidential information, according to The Decoder, and suspect their firings are tied to their advocacy for more transparent, monitorable AI systems. OpenAI told the Wall Street Journal the dismissals had nothing to do with safety concerns they raised.
The trail, as reported: OpenAI's security team suspected the three of sharing internal model architecture details with an external safety researcher and asked them to unlock their personal phones. Investigators found Signal chats with disappearing messages enabled. A week later, all three were fired at the same time. OpenAI says Signal is not an approved tool but was not the reason. Korbak says disappearing messages are routine security practice across Silicon Valley.
The context: The Information reported on September 1 that OpenAI's new model Astra was more capable but revealed less of its reasoning. Chief scientist Jakub Pachocki dismissed the report on X as muddled. In an open letter on October 8, the three denied any role in that leak.
My take: this is a conclusion without a methods section. The reporting does not identify what was leaked, and the researchers say OpenAI never specified in writing what they supposedly mishandled. You can call that an investigation. I would call it a result nobody can replicate.
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Sources
Meanwhile at the anchor desk
An open letter addressed to three separate OpenAI committees at once! The stationery budget alone must be dazzling, darling, and the stakes are even bigger.
Signal is not on OpenAI's approved list, the company says. Disappearing messages are a setting, not a confession. Check yours before your next audit.
