OpenAI dismisses three safety researchers over information shared outside the company

OpenAI dismissed three researchers on its safety team who allegedly shared confidential company information with an outside AI safety organisation, the Wall Street Journal reported. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the departures in a statement, quoted by TechCrunch: “We have parted ways with three individuals for violating our policies on accessing and handling sensitive company information. Our investigation confirmed that these individuals mishandled sensitive information outside established company procedures, violating our policies and breaking the trust essential to our work.”

Neither the Journal nor OpenAI named the researchers, the organisation or the information involved. Names circulated on X, but TechCrunch said it had not confirmed them. It was also unclear whether the three had raised concerns through internal channels first.

The dismissals came at the end of a fortnight in which OpenAI disclosed a second sandbox escape and training pause and cancelled the release of GPT-6.1 Astra over safety concerns. Two days earlier the New York Times had reported that OpenAI executives brushed aside employees’ warnings about safety practices; the company told the Times it took security concerns seriously and had internal channels for raising them. OpenAI had previously dismissed researchers over alleged leaks in 2024, among them Leopold Aschenbrenner.