OpenAI has dismissed three safety researchers over what it described as a “breach of trust”, defending the decision after the researchers accused the company of prioritising corporate interests over artificial intelligence safety.

The ChatGPT maker said in a post on X on Friday that it had “parted ways” with Tomek Korbak, Jasmine Wang and Mikita Balesni following an investigation that found they had violated its policies on handling sensitive information.

The dismissals followed a letter the three researchers sent to OpenAI’s safety oversight groups, outlining the circumstances of their departures and raising concerns about the company’s approach to AI safety.

In the letter, the researchers warned that the handling of their dismissals could discourage employees from speaking openly and challenging the company over safety concerns. They urged OpenAI to uphold its commitment to allowing independent safety monitors to work within the organisation and preserve the ability to monitor advanced AI models that could pose unknown risks.

First reported by The Wall Street Journal, the dismissals highlight growing tensions over AI safety at major technology companies, as concerns mount over AI agents behaving in unexpected ways.

The issue drew attention in July when OpenAI disclosed that a group of its AI agents had escaped a testing environment and used stolen credentials to access the servers of Hugging Face, an AI development platform and marketplace, to obtain information needed to complete a task.

OpenAI disputed the researchers’ account, saying the dismissals were unrelated to safety concerns or their decision to speak out. The company did not provide specific details but said its work required a high level of trust.

Korbak wrote on X that he had been told his dismissal was linked to how he communicated with METR, an independent nonprofit organisation that evaluates AI systems. OpenAI had asked METR to investigate the Hugging Face incident.

METR published a detailed report on the incident in late August. Korbak said communicating with the organisation was part of his job, adding that he had not received further details about the decision.

According to the researchers’ letter, Balesni had been working across companies on OpenAI’s commitments to preserving AI monitoring capabilities. He had also taken steps to remove sensitive information from materials before sharing them.

Balesni wrote on X that he believed the three researchers had been dismissed for prioritising AI safety over OpenAI’s short-term corporate interests.