An OpenAI whistleblower is calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch an investigation into the AI giant.
In a letter obtained from the whistleblower, The Washington PostThe whistleblowers allege that OpenAI violated federal law by barring them from speaking out about safety issues regarding the technology.
The letter goes into further detail about OpenAI's startling lack of transparency, which the company has faced over the past year from critics and Former ExecutiveThey are calling for increased government regulation of the company and the entire AI industry.
Letter to the OpenAI whistleblower
Acquirer The Washington PostThe seven-page letter alleged that OpenAI had threatened employees for participating in legally protected whistleblowing activities.
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According to the letter, OpenAI forced employees into employment contracts requiring them to notify the company if they wanted to speak to federal authorities as whistleblowers. Additionally, the letter required that if OpenAI employees chose this path, the company “waive any federal rights” to compensation afforded to whistleblowers.
Government agencies often offer financial rewards to whistleblowers. For example, the IRS and SEC both offer double-digit percentages of any money the agency collects as a result of information provided by a whistleblower. OpenAI's employment contract stipulates that employees cannot receive such rewards.
While OpenAI may have understandable concerns about protecting its proprietary technology, the letter further noted that OpenAI's employee contract did not even include an exemption for whistleblower disclosures to the SEC regarding securities violations.
The whistleblower letter: Revealed OpenAI threatened former employees that speaking out against the company could cost them millions of dollars. Previously, OpenAI employees were offered non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements when they left the company. OpenAI stipulated that if employees did not sign the documents, they would “forfeit all vested interests they had acquired during their tenure.”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Confirmed In response to these reports, he said the company would remove these provisions from the documents because it had not enforced them. But these latest revelations in the whistleblower letter indicate that the severance paperwork issue was not a one-off incident for the AI company.
