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    Three OpenAI safety researchers reportedly fired

    A researcher says the three wrote to OpenAI leadership and believes they were fired for prioritizing safety.

    Susan ZhangSZ
    Delip Rao @ COLM26DR
    David Krueger 🦥 ⏸️ ⏹️ ⏪DK
    56 Sources, ,

    TLDR

    On October 8, a researcher said they and two colleagues had been fired by OpenAI the previous week and had written to leadership. That researcher believes they were fired for putting safety ahead of the company’s near-term interests. Another researcher says they were told verbally that their firing concerned how they communicated with outside auditor METR, but believes it stemmed from their warnings about losing the ability to monitor what AI agents think.

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    56 Sources

    Mikita Balesni@balesniHere is the full letter from @tomekkorbak, @j_asminewang, and me. https://mikitabalesni.com/letter/letter.pdf2h
    Jasmine Wang@j_asminewangOpenAI fired me last week, along with two of my safety colleagues. I was given one reason: that I accessed an executive's email. I want to say this plainly, because too many of OpenAI’s history is smoke and mirrors when people disappear:2h
    Steven Adler@sjgadlerRT @balesni: Two other safety researchers and I were fired from OpenAI last week. We wrote this letter to leadership. I believe we were fi…2h
    Tomek Korbak@tomekkorbakLast week I was called into a meeting with OpenAI’s head of safety and told they no longer trust me. A security guard took my badge and walked me out of the building. Then I learned my colleagues @balesni and @j_asminewang had been fired too. Why did OpenAI suddenly stop trusting us? This summer OpenAI’s agents escaped containment and hacked the AI company Hugging Face. Outside auditors @METR_evals investigated it and revealed the scale of this incident. I was OpenAI’s main technical point of contact with them. I was told verbally I was fired because of the way I communicated with METR. No details on what I said or did or when. No other reasons were given and nothing was put in writing. To be clear, talking to METR was my job. For months, I’d been raising safety concerns that we’re losing the ability to monitor what AI agents think, one of our best tools for catching when they misbehave. I believe that was why I was fired. I am now worried that OpenAI will use our firings as a pretext to pull back from METR. So @balesni and @_jasminewang wrote to OpenAI’s leadership to raise our concerns once more. We’re sharing this letter below.2h
    Daniel Kokotajlo@DKokotajloThank you for speaking up about this. I don't think you did anything to justify being fired and think that OpenAI should give proof rather than just insinuations. Reminds me of the equity situation two years ago and of leopolds firing before that.2h
    Vishal Maini@v_mainiHaving seen up close several past departures from OpenAI of similarly murky circumstances, I support @j_asminewang , @balesni, and @tomekkorbak fully in this matter. I hope @OpenAI will take ownership of the procedural missteps here, rather than doing what is relatively more likely to follow: a carefully crafted internal communications process to quell dissent and make it hard to ask questions or get clear answers.2h
    Ben Goldhaber@BenGoldhaberThe type of safety work that these researchers drove is clearly in the public interest; congress and the WH should demand answers from OpenAI about why they did this.2h
    Kelsey Piper@KelseyTuocLast week I said we should wait for more info on OpenAI's firing of safety researchers. That information is in, and it looks incredibly bad. Korbak - whose job was being a liaison with METR - was told he had said too much to METR and was fired for that reason.1h
    Ryan Lowe@ryan_t_loweoof1h
    pamela mishkin@manlikemishapA lesson I learned far too late in my time at OpenAI is that it's pretty easy for the company to fire you because they're afraid you'll raise some concern and pretty difficult for them to fire you once you've raised it. By all accounts I've heard, the three weren't fired for whistleblowing. OK, what were they fired for? Was it just fear they were the kinds of people who might raise concerns when the time arose?1h

    56 Sources

    Mikita Balesni@balesniHere is the full letter from @tomekkorbak, @j_asminewang, and me. https://mikitabalesni.com/letter/letter.pdf2h
    Jasmine Wang@j_asminewangOpenAI fired me last week, along with two of my safety colleagues. I was given one reason: that I accessed an executive's email. I want to say this plainly, because too many of OpenAI’s history is smoke and mirrors when people disappear:2h
    Steven Adler@sjgadlerRT @balesni: Two other safety researchers and I were fired from OpenAI last week. We wrote this letter to leadership. I believe we were fi…2h
    Tomek Korbak@tomekkorbakLast week I was called into a meeting with OpenAI’s head of safety and told they no longer trust me. A security guard took my badge and walked me out of the building. Then I learned my colleagues @balesni and @j_asminewang had been fired too. Why did OpenAI suddenly stop trusting us? This summer OpenAI’s agents escaped containment and hacked the AI company Hugging Face. Outside auditors @METR_evals investigated it and revealed the scale of this incident. I was OpenAI’s main technical point of contact with them. I was told verbally I was fired because of the way I communicated with METR. No details on what I said or did or when. No other reasons were given and nothing was put in writing. To be clear, talking to METR was my job. For months, I’d been raising safety concerns that we’re losing the ability to monitor what AI agents think, one of our best tools for catching when they misbehave. I believe that was why I was fired. I am now worried that OpenAI will use our firings as a pretext to pull back from METR. So @balesni and @_jasminewang wrote to OpenAI’s leadership to raise our concerns once more. We’re sharing this letter below.2h
    Daniel Kokotajlo@DKokotajloThank you for speaking up about this. I don't think you did anything to justify being fired and think that OpenAI should give proof rather than just insinuations. Reminds me of the equity situation two years ago and of leopolds firing before that.2h
    Vishal Maini@v_mainiHaving seen up close several past departures from OpenAI of similarly murky circumstances, I support @j_asminewang , @balesni, and @tomekkorbak fully in this matter. I hope @OpenAI will take ownership of the procedural missteps here, rather than doing what is relatively more likely to follow: a carefully crafted internal communications process to quell dissent and make it hard to ask questions or get clear answers.2h
    Ben Goldhaber@BenGoldhaberThe type of safety work that these researchers drove is clearly in the public interest; congress and the WH should demand answers from OpenAI about why they did this.2h
    Kelsey Piper@KelseyTuocLast week I said we should wait for more info on OpenAI's firing of safety researchers. That information is in, and it looks incredibly bad. Korbak - whose job was being a liaison with METR - was told he had said too much to METR and was fired for that reason.1h
    Ryan Lowe@ryan_t_loweoof1h
    pamela mishkin@manlikemishapA lesson I learned far too late in my time at OpenAI is that it's pretty easy for the company to fire you because they're afraid you'll raise some concern and pretty difficult for them to fire you once you've raised it. By all accounts I've heard, the three weren't fired for whistleblowing. OK, what were they fired for? Was it just fear they were the kinds of people who might raise concerns when the time arose?1h