FILE PHOTO: OpenAI is releasing former employees from non-disparagement agreements that would cancel their equity if they criticised the company publicly.
| Photo Credit: AP
OpenAI is releasing former employees from non-disparagement agreements that would cancel their equity if they criticised the company publicly, it confirmed on Thursday. The change was shared in a company-wide internal memo sent to both former and current employees, which was reported by CNBC.
The memo noted that during the employee’s departure from OpenAI, “you may have been informed that you were required to execute a general release agreement that included a non-disparagement provision in order to retain the Vested Units [of equity]. Regardless of whether you executed the Agreement, we write to notify you that OpenAI has not cancelled, and will not cancel, any Vested Units.”
The memo said OpenAI will also not enforce any other non-disparagement or non-solicitation contract items that the employee may have signed.
The company has since addressed this saying they are making changes to their departure process.
(For top technology news of the day, subscribe to our tech newsletter Today’s Cache)
An OpenAI rep spoke to CNBC saying, “We’re incredibly sorry that we’re only changing this language now; it doesn’t reflect our values or the company we want to be.”
Last week, Vox reported on the non-disparagement agreements with leaked emails showing the AI firm’s aggressive tactics to prevent employees from speaking out. The policy essentially forced ex-employees to choose between equity which is potentially worth millions of dollars or not to criticise the company with no end date. The terms are particularly severe and unusual and have been criticised since.
Altman responded to the report on X saying he wasn’t aware of the clause. “This is on me and one of the few times I’ve been genuinely embarrassed running OpenAI; i did not know this was happening and I should have. The team was already in the process of fixing the standard exit paperwork over the past month or so. If any former employee who signed one of those old agreements is worried about it, they can contact me and we’ll fix that too. Very sorry about this,” he tweeted.
