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 maker of ChatGPT said in a post on X on Friday that it had “parted ways” with the researchers following an investigation that found they had violated clear policies on handling sensitive information.

The decision came after Tomek Korbak, Jasmine Wang and Mikita Balesni sent a letter to OpenAI’s safety oversight groups outlining the circumstances of their dismissals and raising concerns about AI safety.

The researchers warned that internal and external communications about their dismissals could discourage employees from speaking freely and openly disagreeing over safety issues. They urged the company to honour its commitment to allowing independent safety monitors to work inside 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 are the latest sign of growing tensions over AI safety at leading technology companies, amid a series of incidents involving AI agents acting in unexpected ways.

The issue gained 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 their dismissals were not related to safety concerns or speaking out. The company did not provide specific details but said it needed a high level of trust to carry out its work.

Korbak wrote on X that he was told he was being dismissed because of how he communicated with METR, an independent nonprofit organisation that evaluates AI systems. OpenAI had brought in 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 was not given further details about the decision.

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

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