Fired OpenAI Safety Researchers Call for Independent Audits in Open Letter

Three safety researchers OpenAI had previously fired published an open letter on October 7, denying the company's stated reasons for their termination and calling for independent oversight.

The letter's key claims and requests:

• The researchers argue they were terminated for prioritizing safety concerns over near-term commercial interests

• They call specifically for independent audits of systems whose internal reasoning isn't fully visible to evaluators

• The letter is addressed in part to OpenAI's board

OpenAI's position:

• The company has stated the researchers were terminated for mishandling sensitive internal information, not for raising safety concerns

• The two accounts directly conflict

The letter's timing is notable — it landed the same week as the NYC Council hearing and continuing FTC scrutiny of AI agent risks, adding another voice from inside OpenAI's recent history to the push for third-party safety verification.

Public, named dissent from recently fired insiders is a significantly higher-visibility form of internal disagreement than anonymous leaks.

Why It Matters: Named public dissent from former insiders puts direct pressure on OpenAI's board to respond substantively, rather than simply reiterating its original termination rationale.