OpenAI Ends Non-Disparagement Clause For Employees

Former and current OpenAI employees received a memo this week addressing a significant controversy that CEO Sam Altman has faced during his tenure. The memo clarified that OpenAI will not enforce a non-disparagement contract that employees, since at least 2019, were pressured to sign within a week of their termination. This contract risked forfeiting their vested equity, which could amount to millions, for even mild criticism of OpenAI's work.

Andrew Carr, a former OpenAI employee who left the company in 2021, shared the full memo in a post on X (formerly Twitter). "I guess that settles that," Carr commented on the post.

This development follows a public backlash triggered by a Vox report revealing the restrictive non-disparagement clause. The scrutiny intensified after the resignation of OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, along with his superalignment team co-leader Jan Leike. Both resignations were sudden and minimally explained, with Sutskever expressing confidence in OpenAI's future and Leike merely stating, "I resigned."

Speculation grew about whether OpenAI was either forcing out employees or engaging in risky AI practices, and concerns emerged that the non-disparagement agreement was preventing former employees from speaking out.

According to Vox, the exit agreement required employees to sign within a week of quitting or face the loss of potentially millions in vested equity, an unusually harsh term in Silicon Valley. This effectively censored former employees by forbidding them from criticizing OpenAI indefinitely.