OpenAI Layoffs 2024: Sam Altman-Run Company Conducts Internal Investigation and Fires Two Researchers for Allegedly Leaking Information, Say Reports

San Francisco, April 13: OpenAI has reportedly fired two researchers for leaking critical information about the company. The Sam Altman-run company has been developing various projects related to artificial intelligence, such as OpenAI Sora and ChatGPT AI chatbot. Now, OpenAI's ChatGPT is facing stiff competition from Google's Gemini AI and Elon Musk's Grok AI, not to mention Microsoft's own Copilot. 

According to the report by The Information, Sam Altman-run OpenAI fired two researchers—Leopold Aschenbrenner and Pavel Izmailov—who allegedly leaked the information. Leopold Aschenbrenner had been reportedly working as an ally to OpenAI's chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, who participated in firing Sam Altman back in 2023. The report did not mention the nature of the information leaked by these two researchers, which led to their termination. Gemini 1.0, Gemini 1.5 Coming to OnePlus and OPPO Smartphone in 2024; Company Announces Collaboration With Google’s Chatbots and Google Cloud AI.

The report mentioned that the other researcher, Pavel Izmailov, had been working on reasoning and spent time in the safety team. According to another report by Times Now News, both the employees who suffered job loss in the recent OpenAI layoffs were part of the company's safety team. The report also highlighted that Leopold Aschenbrenner from OpenAI's safety team was a "rising star" in security. Pavel Izmailov, on the other hand, was later transitioning to the reasoning research team.

The report said that the two researchers were closely associated, especially when OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was fired in November. The sacking of Sam Altman was reportedly done because he was not "candid." After Sam Altman was reinstated after the majority of employees threatened to quit the company, he came back, and the board was reshuffled. Elon Musk’s xAI Introduces Grok 1.5 Vision With Capability To Understand Visual Information Like Charts, Photographs, Screenshots and More, Will Be Available Soon for Early Testers and Existing Grok Users.

With OpenAI's new promising AI projects in the works, the company's board and organizational structure appear to be in line with the goals. However, this little incident reportedly reminds people of the company's internal challenges, board struggles, and controversies that were revealed to the world in November 2023.