San Francisco, California – Following the resignation of several prominent employees at OpenAI, a recent Vox report revealed that departing employees are required to sign a restrictive off-boarding agreement. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admitted that certain aspects of the agreement should never have been put in place, stating, “it’s one of the few times I’ve been genuinely embarrassed running OpenAI.”
The off-boarding agreement includes provisions for nondisclosure and non-disparagement, prohibiting former employees from criticizing OpenAI indefinitely. Additionally, they are barred from disclosing that they signed a non-disclosure agreement. Failure to sign or comply with the agreement results in the loss of all vested equity in the company.
Altman clarified that while there was a provision for potential equity cancellation in previous exit documents, OpenAI has never actually reclaimed any vested equity. Moving forward, the company is revising its exit paperwork to address these concerns. Altman expressed regret over the existence of such provisions, emphasizing that he was unaware of their implementation and apologizing for the oversight.
The controversy surrounding the off-boarding agreement emerged as researchers Jan Leike and Ilya Sutskever resigned from OpenAI. Leike cited a misalignment in the company’s core priorities as the reason for his departure, while Sutskever remains optimistic about OpenAI’s pursuit of developing a “safe and beneficial” artificial general intelligence.
As OpenAI addresses criticisms and works to improve its exit processes, Altman reassured former employees who signed the prior agreements that they can reach out for resolution. The company is focused on rectifying the situation and ensuring transparency and fairness for all parties involved.