On Thursday, OpenAI reversed a controversial decision. Former employees were essentially forced to decide between signing a non-disparagement agreement (NDA) with no expiration date and retaining their vested equity in the company.
OpenAI Retracting Non-Disparagement Agreement (NDA)
An internal memo viewed by CNBC was sent to former employees and shared with current staff at OpenAI. The memo addressed each former employee and stated that upon their departure, they may have been informed that they needed to sign a general release agreement, which included a non-disparagement provision, to retain their vested equity units.
The memo informed former employees that OpenAI had not and would not cancel any vested equity units, regardless of whether they signed the agreement. It also stated that OpenAI would not enforce any other non-disparagement or non-solicitation clauses that the employees might have signed, as OpenAI makes significant updates to their departure process.
OpenAI stated that they have never and will never revoke vested equity from former employees, even if they did not sign departure documents. Unless the provision is mutual, they will remove non-disparagement clauses from standard departure paperwork and release former employees from existing non-disparagement obligations. The company also expressed regret for the delay in changing this language, acknowledging that it did not reflect their values or the company they aspire to be. They added that former employees will be informed of these changes as well.
Bloomberg initially reported on the release of the non-disparagement provision, while Vox first revealed the existence of the NDA provision.
OpenAI's Series of Internal Controversies and Conflicts
This news emerged amid growing controversy for OpenAI over the past week. The company announced it would remove one of the viral chatbot's voices, "Sky," one week after it introduced a variety of audio voices for ChatGPT.
Sky created controversy for resembling the voice of actress Scarlett Johansson in the movie "Her," which is about artificial intelligence. Johansson alleged that OpenAI ripped off her voice without her consent, despite her declining to let them use it. In response, OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, posted on X that they are pausing the use of Sky while addressing the concerns.
OpenAI also disbanded its team focused on the long-term risks of artificial intelligence last week, just one year after the group was announced, with some team members being reassigned to other teams within the company, according to an anonymous source familiar with the situation. OpenAI has committed 20% of its computing power to its Superalignment team to achieve scientific and technical breakthroughs to steer and control AI systems.
The news came days after both team leaders, OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, announced their departures. Leike noted on Friday that OpenAI's safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products.
On Saturday, another statement attributed to OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and CEO Sam Altman was posted on X, asserting that the company has raised awareness of the risks and opportunities of AGI (artificial general intelligence) to better prepare the world for it.
