OpenAI required its employees to sign agreements that made them give up their federal rights to whistleblower compensation, as reported in the letter reviewed by the Washington Post.
According to the Washington Post, OpenAI whistleblowers have officially reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about the company’s rumored restrictive non-disclosure agreements, urging for further investigation.
The whistleblowers claimed that OpenAI provided employees with very strict contracts for employment, severance, and confidentiality, potentially resulting in repercussions for those who reported issues to federal authorities, as reported by the newspaper.
The AI company compelled its employees to give up their federal whistleblower compensation rights by making them sign agreements, as reported by the Washington Post.
The contracts also stated that workers must obtain permission from the company before sharing information with federal regulators, the article stated, noting that OpenAI did not include any exceptions in the employee nondisparagement clauses for reporting securities violations to the SEC.
A spokesperson from the SEC mentioned in an email that they do not provide any feedback on whether a whistleblower submission exists or not.
OpenAI did not promptly reply to requests for a statement regarding the Washington Post’s report.
Concerns about safety have been raised due to the impressive abilities of OpenAI’s chatbots with generative AI, including holding conversations like humans and generating images from text prompts, as AI models advance.
OpenAI established a Safety and Security Committee in May, with board members, such as CEO Sam Altman, taking the lead as they prepare to train their new artificial intelligence model.
