Mikita Balesni: ‘I believe we were fired for prioritizing safety over the near-term interests of OpenAI’
Mikita Balesni @balesniXImportance: major (4 of 5)
Why it matters
First-hand claim by one of the three fired OpenAI safety researchers, shared with their letter; about 1.7M views by Oct 9 (fxtwitter).
Summary
Balesni posts the three researchers’ letter to OpenAI leadership and says: “Two other safety researchers and I were fired from OpenAI last week... I believe we were fired for prioritizing safety over the near-term interests of OpenAI as a corporation.” Techmeme headlined it on Oct 9. Read via api.fxtwitter.com on 2026-10-09: about 1.70M views and 4.7k likes.
Archived text
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.
