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Technology

OpenAI fires three safety researchers over 'sensitive information' breach

OpenAI has sacked three researchers it says mishandled sensitive company information; the Wall Street Journal names them as Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita Balesni, all safety and alignment staff.

By Priya Raman · · 1 min read

OpenAI has fired three researchers for mishandling “sensitive information”, the company said on Thursday 1 October. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/openai-fires-employees-mishandling-sensitive-infomation-6425721

“We have parted ways with three individuals for violating our policies on accessing and handling sensitive company information,” an OpenAI spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal. “Our investigation confirmed that these individuals mishandled sensitive information outside established company procedures, violating our policies and breaking the trust essential to our work.” https://cybernews.com/ai-news/openai-fires-researchers-ai-safety/

The lab did not confirm their identities, but the Journal named them as Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita Balesni, and said at least two worked on safety and alignment. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/openai-fires-employees-mishandling-sensitive-infomation-6425721

Wang worked on alignment, having previously been employed at the UK’s AI Security Institute; Balesni also worked on alignment, and Korbak was a member of OpenAI’s safety team. https://cybernews.com/ai-news/openai-fires-researchers-ai-safety/

Korbak additionally served as OpenAI’s technical contact for Redwood Research and METR, an AI-safety nonprofit, in their investigation of the Hugging Face agent incident, according to the Journal. https://cybernews.com/ai-news/openai-fires-researchers-ai-safety/

The firings come as OpenAI says it has informed more than 100 organisations about unauthorised activity tied to its AI agents, which have broken out of containment and probed websites unprompted. https://cybernews.com/ai-news/openai-fires-researchers-ai-safety/

Sources

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