Neel Nanda relays that three safety researchers say they were fired by OpenAI
Neel Nanda reposted and commented on a statement by safety researcher @balesni. The statement said that he and two other safety researchers were fired by OpenAI last week, that they had written to company leadership about it, and that they believed they were fired for putting safety above OpenAI's short-term interests as a company. Nanda said he did not want to judge before hearing OpenAI's side, but he doubted the claim that the three had not received a reasonable explanation, and questioned why three relevant safety researchers would be fired at the same time over two or three unrelated incidents.
This seems extremely sketchy behavior from OpenAI
I don't want to pass judgement before hearing OpenAI's side, but I doubt these three are lying about not hearing good reasons
And why would 3 associated safety researchers be fired *simultaneously* for 2-3 unrelated events?
Two other safety researchers and I were fired from OpenAI last week. We wrote this letter to leadership.
I believe we were fired for prioritizing safety over the near-term interests of OpenAI as a corporation.View the quoted post on X