Sam Altman is āembarrassedā that OpenAI threatened to revoke equity if exiting employees wouldnāt sign an NDA
OpenAI reportedly made exiting employees choose between keeping their vested equity and being able to speak out against the company. According to , which viewed the document in question, employees could ālose all vested equity they earned during their time at the company, which is likely worth millions of dollarsā if they didnāt sign a nondisclosure and non-disparagement agreement, thanks to a provision in the off-boarding papers. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed in a on Saturday evening that such a provision did exist, but said āwe have never clawed back anyoneās vested equity, nor will we do that if people do not sign a separation agreement (or donāt agree to a non-disparagement agreement).ā
An OpenAI spokesperson echoed this in a statement to Vox, and Altman said the company āwas already in the process of fixing the standard exit paperwork over the past month or so.ā But as Vox notes in its report, at least one former OpenAI employee has spoken publicly about sacrificing equity by declining to sign an NDA upon leaving. Daniel Kokotajlo recently on an online forum that this decision led to the loss of equity likely amounting to āabout 85 percent of my familyās net worth at least.ā
in regards to recent stuff about how openai handles equity:
we have never clawed back anyoneās vested equity, nor will we do that if people do not sign a separation agreement (or donāt agree to a non-disparagement agreement). vested equity is vested equity, full stop.
there wasā¦
ā Sam Altman (@sama) May 18, 2024
In Altmanās response, the CEO apologized and said he was āembarrassedā after finding out about the provision, which he claims he was previously unaware of. ā[T]here was a provision about potential equity cancellation in our previous exit docs; although we never clawed anything back, it should never have been something we had in any documents or communication,ā he wrote on X. āthis is on me and one of the few times iāve been genuinely embarrassed running openai; i did not know this was happening and i should have [sic].ā In addition to acknowledging that the company is changing the exit paperwork, Altman went on to say, ā[I]f any former employee who signed one of those old agreements is worried about it, they can contact me and weāll fix that too.ā
All of this comes after two more high-profile resignations from OpenAI this week. OpenAI co-founder and Chief Scientist that he was leaving the company, and was followed soon after by Jan Leike, who was a team leader on OpenAIās .
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