OpenAI on Friday rejected allegations by three former safety researchers who claimed the ChatGPT maker fired them after they raised concerns about the dangers of artificial intelligence.

Dismissing claims that their departures were linked to safety concerns, the AI company said an internal investigation had uncovered “a significant breach of trust” beyond what the former employees had disclosed.

“We want to be very clear that these decisions were not about raising safety concerns or speaking out,” OpenAI said in a statement posted on X.

“We have not and do not terminate any of our employees for raising concerns,” the statement said.

The company’s response came hours after Mikita Balesni, Tomek Korbak and Jasmine Wang publicly released a letter addressed to OpenAI, ending a week-long silence following their high-profile dismissals and reigniting debate over safety at the AI firm, whose software has been linked to security breaches.

“I believe we were fired for prioritizing safety over the near-term interests of OpenAI as a corporation,” Balesni wrote on X.

“Our firing leaves us worried that the norms inside OpenAI are shifting,” the letter says, adding that “terminations such as ours, executed and communicated so abruptly, are chilling the open culture OpenAI has prized in the past.”

The researchers also urged OpenAI to honour its commitment to hosting independent auditors permanently, expressing fears that their dismissals “may be used to justify ending” the initiative.

In response, OpenAI said it was “actively finalising contracts” with third-party safety assessors and would announce further details in the coming weeks.

The company also agreed with the researchers that ensuring advanced AI models remain monitorable required an industry-wide commitment, including from OpenAI itself.