According to Vox.OpenAI s employees who want to leave the company are met with extensive and strict exit documents. If they refuse to sign them within a relatively short period of time, they may be threatened with losing the equity they have already earned in the company. This draconian policy forces former employees to choose between giving up potentially millions of dollars worth of equity they have earned or agreeing not to criticize the company, and there is no end date.
According to company insiders, the news has caused a furor within OpenAI. Like many Silicon Valley startups, OpenAI's employees typically receive equity in the form of most of their expected compensation. They tend to believe that they are theirs once they are "vested" according to a contractual timetable, just as the company will not recoup wages that have been paid.
CEO Sam Altman issued an apology stating, "We've never taken back anyone's vesting rights, and we don't do so because people don't sign separation agreements (or don't agree to non-disparagement agreements). Vesting equity is vesting equity, unambiguously." He added, "There was a clause in the previous exit document about the possibility of canceling equity; while we never took anything back, it should not be in any document or communication. This was my responsibility and one of the few times I was truly embarrassed while running OpenAI; I had no idea this was happening, and I should have known."
However, company documents leaked to Vox signed by Altman and Kwon complicate their claim that the clawback provision was unknown to them. In the letter of separation in the termination documents, the understood language is written, "If you have any vesting rights ...... you will need to sign a waiver of claims within 60 days to retain those rights and interests." Kwon signed the letter in addition to Diane Yoon, OpenAI's VP of Human Resources (who recently left OpenAI). This closely-restricted NDA is for "consideration" of already-vested equity only, and was signed by COO Brad Lightcap.
Meanwhile, according to documents provided to Vox by former employees, the incorporation documents for the holding company that handles OpenAI's equity contain multiple paragraphs of language that could allow the company to take back former employees' equity or prevent them from selling it almost arbitrarily in the event of a bad deal. These incorporation documents were signed by OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, on April 10, 2023.Vox asked if OpenAI could provide any background on how these provisions made it into the incorporation documents without Altman's knowledge. While not directly answering the question, Kwon said in a statement to Vox, "We regret the pain this has caused our hard-working and talented employees. We have been working hard to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. We will work even harder to do better."
companyleaderThe recent apology is problematic. Company documents indicate that they were aware that the shares in questionauthorityterms of coercion.OpenAI has taken a hard line in pressuring former employees.The issues facing OpenAI go far beyond money.Arguably one of the most influential and visible companies in the AI space today, OpenAI has made an ambitious statement aimed at "ensuring that artificial general intelligence benefits all people ".