OpenAI’s safety firings undercut its promise of independent oversight
OpenAI fired three safety researchers two days after promising independent evaluators employee-like access, making self-policing harder to trust for anyone relying on the lab to disclose dangerous model behavior. The op-ed says one fired researcher had been a contact for an evaluator investigating the Hugging Face incident, while OpenAI said the group mishandled sensitive information and the employees dispute that account. Its proposed fix is oversight with access and protections that do not depend on OpenAI’s approval.