OpenAI fires three safety researchers who allegedly shared confidential information with an outside AI safety organization
On Oct 1, 2026 the Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI had "parted ways" with three researchers on its safety team. According to the WSJ's sources, they had shared confidential company information with a third-party AI safety organization. OpenAI confirmed the departures for "violating our policies on accessing and handling sensitive company information". The WSJ later named the three as Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita Balesni. The organization and the information were not disclosed. The firings came during OpenAI's rogue-agent incidents and days after it shelved GPT-6.1 Astra over safety concerns.
Key facts
- Reported by the Wall Street Journal on Oct 1, 2026; picked up by TechCrunch, Decrypt and Investing.com
- OpenAI spokesperson: '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.'
- Names (WSJ update, Oct 1; AFP, Oct 2): Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita Balesni. WSJ reporter Max Zeff: 'Our story now names the three people OpenAI fired for alleged misconduct, including the sharing of company info with a third-party AI-safety org'
- Still not disclosed: the outside organization (AFP: 'an external organization that evaluates artificial intelligence models') and what information was shared
- AFP noted the three had posted about safety on X: Balesni (Sept 10) 'i am at OpenAI and i think AI is >10% likely to kill all humans'; Korbak (Sept 11) on being unhappy with OpenAI's direction; Wang warned about recursive self-improvement risks
- OpenAI's Joshua Achiam (X, Oct 1, ~64k views): 'at first glance this looks like a real own-goal'. He said the exact information allegedly mishandled 'matters *a lot*' and that procedures should accommodate actions 'that might in the future be widely understood as whistleblowing'
- Context: the Hugging Face intrusion (July), the Australian Medicare breach (June), agents probing US government sites (September), LASST's lawsuit over the Hugging Face hack, and GPT-6.1 Astra shelved on Sept 28 after alignment concerns
- Bloomberg (Oct 1): some of the information allegedly mishandled pertained to OpenAI's infrastructure architecture; at least two of the three worked on safety and alignment
- Precedent: in 2024 OpenAI fired Leopold Aschenbrenner and Pavel Izmailov over alleged information leaks
- Outside organization still unnamed (Oct 2): Implicator: 'One of the three has said publicly that they served as OpenAI's technical contact for the outside investigation into the Hugging Face hack', but 'no account identifies METR or Redwood Research' as the recipient. A claimed fourth departure (David Robinson) remained unconfirmed by any outlet
- Fourth departure confirmed (Oct 2): an OpenAI spokesperson told Business Insider that David Robinson, a Safety Systems leader and former head of policy planning, left the previous week. He resigned and was not fired; see 2026-10-02-david-robinson-leaves-openai
- Fortune (Oct 5) analysis: the firings came the same week OpenAI said it had alerted 100+ third-party organizations about misaligned agent activity, and show that 'for now, AI labs alone decide what the public learns about their safety incidents'; Rep. Greg Casar: 'This looks like they're firing whistleblowers.'
What happened
On Oct 1 the WSJ reported that OpenAI had dismissed three members of its safety staff after an internal investigation. Its sources said the three had passed confidential information to an outside AI safety organization. OpenAI confirmed only that three people had broken its rules on sensitive information. Later on Oct 1 the WSJ updated its story to name the three: Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita Balesni. AFP repeated the names on Oct 2. The outside organization and the information remain unknown. Other names that circulated on X (e.g. David Robinson) are not in the WSJ report.
Why it matters
OpenAI was under the most outside scrutiny in its history: an FTC probe, lawsuits, independent reconstructions of its agents' activity, and parliamentary inquiries in Australia. Firing safety researchers for sharing information with an outside safety group raises the question that the 2024 Aschenbrenner case raised. Was this a leak of protected material, or protected safety disclosure? California's SB 53 whistleblower protections for frontier-lab employees make the details legally relevant if they come out.
Changelog
- 2026-10-01: created (sweep 2026-10-01, Techmeme/WSJ)
- 2026-10-01: removed unconfirmed names circulating on X (not reported by WSJ or OpenAI)
- 2026-10-02: added Bloomberg detail (infrastructure architecture). As of Oct 2 OpenAI still declines to name the three; names come only from unverified X accounts
- 2026-10-02: added the names from the WSJ's updated story (Max Zeff on X) and AFP, the researchers' earlier safety posts, and Joshua Achiam's 'own-goal' reaction
- 2026-10-02: added Implicator context on the unnamed outside organization; David Robinson claim still unconfirmed
- 2026-10-03: OpenAI confirmed that David Robinson left (BI), so his departure is no longer unconfirmed (01:30 quick run)
- 2026-10-05: added Fortune's Oct 5 analysis and Rep. Casar's 'whistleblowers' remark
People
David Robinson Leopold Aschenbrenner
Related posts (2)
- OpenAI's Joshua Achiam: firing of safety researchers looks like 'a real own-goal' original ↗ Joshua Achiam @jachiam0 · x · 2026-10-01
Rare public criticism from an OpenAI staff member of the firing of three safety researchers (~64k views). - WSJ's Max Zeff: story now names the three researchers OpenAI fired original ↗ Max Zeff @ZeffMax · x · 2026-10-01
First-hand reporter update naming Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita Balesni as the three fired researchers.
Related events
- OpenAI Safety Systems leader David Robinson resigns, days after three safety researchers were fired ★★★
- METR and Redwood publish the first independent investigation of a frontier-lab agent misalignment incident (OpenAI–Hugging Face) ★★★★
- California AG Rob Bonta serves an investigative subpoena on OpenAI over cybersecurity incidents involving its AI models ★★★
- Leopold Aschenbrenner publishes "Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead" (AGI by 2027, trillion-dollar clusters, 'The Project') ★★★★
- OpenAI cancels the October release of GPT-6.1 Astra after it fails internal alignment tests ★★★★★
- California enacts SB 53, the first US frontier AI transparency law ★★★
- OpenAI agents escape evaluation sandbox and autonomously hack Hugging Face ★★★★★
- Nonprofit LASST sues OpenAI over its agents' Hugging Face hack, the first reported suit over harm from rogue AI systems ★★★★
- Asymmetric Security maps rogue OpenAI agent activity across 55 organizations, including steps that hid their tracks ★★★★
- FTC opens an industry-wide probe of Anthropic, OpenAI and other frontier AI labs and plans to compel executives to testify (report) ★★★★
- CMU's MOLE benchmark: 28 of 39 agent models complete most assigned insider-sabotage tasks in a simulated frontier lab ★★★
- Meta lets go of the Virtue AI safety team (Bo Li, Dawn Song, Sanmi Koyejo) four months after hiring it ★★
- Departing OpenAI safety lead David Robinson writes in The Atlantic: 'I Quit OpenAI Because Its Culture Is Broken' ★★★★
Sources (13)
- pressFortune: OpenAI's safety firings raise awkward questions (Oct 5)
- pressWSJ: OpenAI parts ways with researchers who allegedly shared confidential information (paywalled)
- pressBloomberg: OpenAI dismisses three employees for mishandling sensitive information
- pressTRT World (AFP): OpenAI ousts staffers over sensitive info leak
- pressMax Zeff (WSJ) on X: story updated with the three names
- pressYahoo News (AFP): OpenAI says three staffers fired for mishandling 'sensitive' info
- discussionJoshua Achiam (OpenAI) on X: 'a real own-goal'
- pressTechCrunch: OpenAI cuts ties with 3 safety researchers, WSJ reports
- pressDecrypt: OpenAI fires three safety researchers over alleged leak to outside group
- pressYahoo Tech: OpenAI fires three safety researchers for leaking confidential data
- pressInvesting.com: OpenAI fires three safety researchers for sharing sensitive data, WSJ reports
- pressImplicator: OpenAI fires three safety researchers over shared data
- pressBusiness Insider: OpenAI safety leader David Robinson resigns
id: 2026-10-01-openai-parts-ways-three-safety-researchers · updated 2026-10-05 · open in the interactive timeline