--- title: "OpenAI Employees Forced to Sign NDA Preventing Them From Ever Criticizing Company" description: "## Cone of Silence" date: "2024-05-18" modified: "2024-05-18" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-nda-criticism" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "legal" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" --- # OpenAI Employees Forced to Sign NDA Preventing Them From Ever Criticizing Company ![OpenAI employees are forced to sign a restrictive nondisclosure agreement (NDA) forbidding them from ever criticizing the company.]() *CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 01: Sam Altman (R), CEO of OpenAI, is seen during his visit to The Cambridge Union to receive the Professor Hawking Fellowship on behalf of OpenAI on November 01, 2023 in Cambridge, England. (Photo by Nordin Catic/Getty Images For The Cambridge Union) \Image: Nordin Catic/Getty Images For The Cambridge Union\* ## Cone of Silence ChatGPT creator OpenAI might have "open" in the name, but its business practices seem diametrically opposed to the idea of open dialogue. Take this [fascinating scoop from *Vox*](), which pulls back the curtain on the restrictive nondisclosure agreement (NDA) that employees at the Sam Altman-helmed company are forced to sign to retain equity. Here's what *Vox*'s Kelsey Piper wrote of the legal documents: *It turns out there’s a very clear reason for that. I have seen the extremely restrictive off-boarding agreement that contains nondisclosure and non-disparagement provisions former OpenAI employees are subject to. It forbids them, for the rest of their lives, from criticizing their former employer. Even acknowledging that the NDA exists is a violation of it.* *If a departing employee declines to sign the document, or if they violate it, they can lose all vested equity they earned during their time at the company, which is likely worth millions of dollars. One former employee, Daniel Kokotajlo, who posted that he quit OpenAI "due to losing confidence that it would behave responsibly around the time of AGI," has [confirmed publicly]() that he had to surrender what would have likely turned out to be a huge sum of money in order to quit without signing the document.* ## Signature Flourish How egregious the NDA is depends on your industry and view of employees' rights. But what's certain is that it flies directly in the face of the "open" in OpenAI's name, as well as much of its rhetoric around what it frames as the responsible and transparent development of advanced AI. For its part, OpenAI issued a cryptic denial after *Vox* published its story that seems to contradict what Kokotajlo has said about having to give up equity when he left. "We have never canceled any current or former employee’s vested equity nor will we if people do not sign a release or nondisparagement agreement when they exit," it said. When *Vox* asked if that was a policy change, OpenAI replied only that the statement "reflects reality." It's possible to imagine a world in which the development of AI was guided by universities and publicly funded instead of being pushed forward by impulsive and profit-seeking corporations. But that's not the timeline we've ended up in — and how that reality influences the outcome of AI research is anyone's guess. **More on OpenAI:** [*OpenAI Researcher Quits, Flames Company for Axing Team Working to Prevent Superintelligent AI From Turning Against Humankind*]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()