OpenAI is reversing a controversial policy that tied ex-employees’ stock to non-disparagement agreements (NDAs) that were part of their exit agreements. CNBC reports that OpenAI made the announcement Thursday in an internal memo.
Breaking the agreements would have previously cost former employees their vested shares
OpenAI is reversing a controversial policy that tied ex-employees’ stock to non-disparagement agreements (NDAs) that were part of their exit agreements. CNBC reports that OpenAI made the announcement Thursday in an internal memo.
“We have not and never will take away vested equity, even when people didn’t sign the departure documents,” OpenAI told CNBC in a statement. “We’ll remove nondisparagement clauses from our standard departure paperwork, and we’ll release former employees from existing nondisparagement obligations unless the nondisparagement provision was mutual.”
The artificial intelligence company, according to documents that had been leaked to Vox, had previously been telling workers who left the company that shares they had received as compensation would be revoked if they spoke negatively about OpenAI in public.
Typical topics that people had been discussing included the company’s prioritization of profit and technological novelty over safety and other parts of its mission. The Vox report said that some employees had felt pressured to sign the NDAs. In a statement to Gizmodo, the company apologized for the controversial provision.
“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,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.
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