Ex-OpenAI Employee Reveals Reason For Getting Fired, "Security Memo Was..."

A former OpenAI employee from the research team recently spoke about the reasons behind his termination from the company. Leopold Aschenbrenner, a Columbia University graduate from 2021, revealed in a recent interview with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel that he was terminated in April for allegedly leaking confidential information. He explained that his decision to share a brainstorming document with external researchers led to his firing.

"Sometime last year, I had written a brainstorming document on preparedness, safety, and security measures needed in the future on the path to AGI. I shared that with three external researchers for feedback. That's the leak," Mr Aschenbrenner said in the podcast.

He further stated that it was explicitly communicated to him that leaking the document was the reason for his termination from OpenAI, and the company was displeased that he had shared sensitive information.

"The reason I bring this up is that when I was fired, it was very made explicit that the security memo was a major reason for my being fired."

"Days later, it was made very clear to me that leadership was very unhappy I had shared this memo with the board. Apparently, the board hassled leadership about security," Aschenbrenner said.

He further claimed that sharing such documents with external researchers to gain different perspectives was a common practice at OpenAI, and he had taken precautionary measures to prevent the information from being publicly leaked.

He also mentioned that before his termination, he was questioned by a lawyer about his views on AI progress, AI security, and other related issues.

In response to Mr. Aschenbrenner's comments, an OpenAI spokesperson stated that the issues he raised internally and with OpenAI's Board of Directors were not the reasons for his dismissal.

"While we share his commitment to building safe AGI, we disagree with many of the claims he has since made about our work," the spokesperson told Business Insider.