Whistleblowers say OpenAI employs ‘illegally restrictive’ NDAs | TechCrunch Minute

Watch out openai a group of Whistleblowers accused openai of Requiring its employees to sign a Legally restrictive non-disclosure Agreements or ndas lawyers who represent These whistleblowers sent a letter to Gary gendler the chair of the SEC Requesting that the commission look into Open ai's contracts with current and Former employees that could limit their Ability to alert the SEC about Potentially harmful Behavior the reason Why tech companies generally make Employees sign ndas is to prevent them From sharing confidential information That's understandable because let's say You work at Spotify and then you get a Job at Apple music you probably Shouldn't be able to just spill all the Spotify secrets to a major competitor But these open AI whistleblowers are Showing us how sometimes ndas can go too Far and threaten employees ability to Hold companies accountable in an extreme Situation and in the case of a company As globally influential as open AI these Allegations are serious according to the Whistleblowers these prevented both Employees and investors from Communicating with the SEC about Securities violations and required Employees to wave their rights to Whistleblower compensation yes Whistleblowers can get payments from the

Government if they report fraud or other Illegal activities which is a way that Congress incentivizes workers to make a Report if they think something's up but The whistleblowers said that they would Need prior consent from open aai to Disclose any information to the federal Government but if you were an employee Who wanted to confidentially alert the SEC to wrongdoing why would open aai Allow you to do that if they can Contractually require you not to that's Why these allegations caused so much Alarm the letter to gendler States given The risks associated with the Advancement of AI there is an urgent Need to ensure that employees working on This technology understand that they can Raise complaints or address concerns to Federal regulatory or law enforcement Authorities likewise it is critical for Companies like open aai to understand The illegal nature of their ndas and to Ensure that their workplace cultures Encourage employees to raise concerns Even if those concerns are raised Directly to Federal authorities and even If those concerns may impact the Profitability of the companies more Important context here several High-profile safety conscious open AI Employees have left the company this Year including Ela sver a co-founder and Former Chief scientist at the company so

If open aai does end up having to make Its NDA a little bit less Draconian what More will be learned about the company Behind chat GPT I'm on the edge of my Seat