A recent revelation has surfaced that OpenAI’s exit paperwork includes restrictive clauses threatening to strip departing employees of their vested equity if they speak negatively about the company. This situation came to light after several prominent employees left the organization, prompting a Vox article detailing the restrictive non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements.
These agreements prevent former employees from criticizing OpenAI indefinitely and even prohibit them from disclosing the existence of such agreements. Failure to sign or adhere to these terms results in the forfeiture of their vested equity.
In response, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed regret and embarrassment, acknowledging that these provisions should never have been part of the company’s policies. He clarified that OpenAI has never enforced equity clawbacks and assured that vested equity remains secure, regardless of whether former employees sign the separation agreements.
“We have never clawed back anyone’s vested equity, nor will we do that if people do not sign a separation agreement (or don’t agree to a non-disparagement agreement). Vested equity is vested equity, full stop,” Altman said in a Saturday post on X.
“There 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. 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.”
Altman took responsibility for the oversight, admitting he was unaware of these stipulations and pledging to correct the mistake. He announced that OpenAI is in the process of revising its exit paperwork to remove these provisions and invited any affected former employees to contact him directly for resolution.
Altman says OpenAI is now revamping its exit paperwork. “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.”
This development follows the departure of notable researchers Jan Leike and Ilya Sutskever. Leike resigned, citing fundamental disagreements with OpenAI’s priorities, while Sutskever maintained his belief in the company’s mission to develop safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence. Altman’s commitment to addressing the problematic exit paperwork aims to rectify the situation and ensure fair treatment of departing employees.