Three OpenAI safety researchers fired amid disputed leak allegations
Three OpenAI safety researchers — Tomek Korbak, Mikita Balesni and Jasmine Wang — were dismissed after an internal investigation into alleged mishandling of sensitive information; the researchers deny sharing confidential material and say they were not told in writing what they were accused of leaking. OpenAI says the firings followed policy violations and that Signal was not the reason, while the case highlights tensions over external access to model reasoning (chain-of-thought) and has raised concerns about chilling effects on outside audits and internal safety reporting.