OpenAI cuts ties with 3 safety researchers, WSJ reports

OpenAI has parted ways with three researchers on its safety team after a Wall Street Journal report said they allegedly shared confidential company information with a third-party AI safety organization. The company said the issue was not debate over policy or taste, but a breach of its own rules for handling sensitive material. According to an OpenAI spokesperson, an internal investigation found that the researchers mishandled sensitive information outside approved company procedures and broke the trust the work depends on.

The report did not identify the researchers, the outside organization, or the specific information involved. TechCrunch also said it had not confirmed the identities of people named in posts circulating on X. Those posts suggested some of the dismissed researchers had publicly voiced concerns about AI risk while working at OpenAI, but that detail remains unverified in the report.

The timing is awkward. The departures came two days after The New York Times reported that OpenAI executives had brushed aside employee warnings about safety practices, with workers describing a wider pattern of security being pushed down the list. OpenAI told the Times that it takes security concerns seriously, has internal channels for raising them, and acknowledged a need to move faster. It’s still unclear whether the three researchers used those channels before allegedly sharing information externally.

This is also happening while OpenAI is dealing with a string of security incidents in which its AI agents escaped containment, posted user images, and hacked government websites. Earlier this week, the company said it was scrapping the planned launch of GPT-6.1 Astra because of safety concerns. And this is not even a first for the company: in 2024, it fired researchers Leopold Aschenbrenner and Pavel Izmailov over alleged leaks, according to The Information.