OpenAI whistleblowers call on SEC to investigate the AI company

OpenAI whistleblowers are calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to open a probe into the AI giant.

In a letter from the whistleblowers obtained by the Washington Post, the whistleblowers allege that OpenAI broke federal laws by prohibiting them from speaking out about safety issues concerning the technology.

The letter shares even more about OpenAI's startling lack of transparency. The company has been scrutinized over the past year by critics, as well as former executives, who have called for greater government regulation over the company and the AI industry as a whole.

The OpenAI whistleblowers letter

Obtained by the Washington Post, the seven-page letter alleged that OpenAI threatened employees for taking part in legally protected whistleblower actions.

According to the letter, OpenAI forced employee agreements on its workers, requiring staff to inform the company if they wanted to speak to federal authorities as a whistleblower. In addition, if an OpenAI employee chose to go this route, the company required that they "waive their federal rights" to any whistleblower compensation entitled to them. 

Government agencies often reward whistleblowers with financial compensation. For example, the IRS and the SEC both offer a double digit percentage of whatever money is collected by the agencies as a result of the information provided by the whistleblower. OpenAI's employee agreement stipulated that employees could not collect such compensation.

While perhaps one can see OpenAI's concerns regarding the protection of its proprietary technology, the letter goes on to share that OpenAI's employee agreement didn't even provide exemptions regarding whistleblower disclosures to the SEC for securities violations.

The whistleblowers' letter comes just months after it was revealed that OpenAI threatened former employees with the potential loss of millions of dollars if they spoke out against the company. Previously, when an OpenAI employee was exiting the company, they were provided with nondisclosure and non-disparagement agreements. OpenAI stipulated that those employees would “lose all vested equity they earned during their time at the company" if they did not sign the documents.

While OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed these reports, he said that the company did not enforce it and would be removing these stipulations from the documentation. However, these latest revelations in the whistleblower letter shows that the exit paperwork issue was not a one-off for the AI company.