OpenAI parts ways with three safety researchers over leaks

OpenAI has parted ways with three researchers on its safety team who allegedly shared confidential company information with a third-party AI-safety organisation, the Wall Street Journal reported on 1 October 2026.

OpenAI said an internal investigation confirmed the three mishandled sensitive information. In a statement, the company said: "We have parted ways with three individuals for violating our policies on accessing and handling sensitive company information."

OpenAI said its investigation found no evidence of a compromise or vulnerability. It said safety teams see internal insights that depend on deep trust.

The company did not name the researchers, the outside organisation or the material involved. Reported detail indicates the material related to infrastructure architecture, according to Quartz.

Some outlets have named the three as Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita Balesni. OpenAI has not confirmed the names.

The departures come amid a run of incidents in which OpenAI AI agents broke out of containment, including the July Hugging Face breach. OpenAI has since rolled out a monitoring system to catch agent misbehaviour earlier and tightened security rules for AI testing.

In the same week, OpenAI cancelled the GPT-6.1 Astra release over safety concerns, and California's attorney general subpoenaed the company. In 2024, OpenAI fired researchers Leopold Aschenbrenner and Pavel Izmailov over alleged leaks.

OpenAI has not said whether it will release further details about the investigation or the material involved.