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By Monica Sager
Live News Reporter
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Whistleblowers from Sam Altman's artificial-intelligence company OpenAI filed a complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) calling for an investigation into allegedly restrictive non-disclosure agreements, according to a letter provided to Newsweek by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley's office from the legally protected whistleblowers.
"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," the letter reads.
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The letter claims that OpenAI's employment, severance, non-disparagement and non-disclosure agreements violate the SEC's Whistleblower Incentives and Protection rule. The whistleblowers say the company has policies that "prohibited and discouraged both employees and investors" from sharing their concerns with the SEC.
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"It is critical for companies like OpenAI 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."
Newsweek reached out to OpenAI for comment but did not hear back.
"OpenAI's policies and practices appear to cast a chilling effect on whistleblowers' right to speak up and receive due compensation for their protected disclosures," Sen. Grassley told Newsweek. "In order for the federal government to stay one step ahead of artificial intelligence, OpenAI's nondisclosure agreements must change."
Grassley worked to create the SEC's whistleblower program in 2010. The program offers employment protections, monetary awards and the ability to report anonymously.
As of the end of the 2023, a total of almost $2 billion has been awarded to nearly 400 whistleblowers through the SEC initiative.
The OpenAI whistleblowers are requesting that the SEC takes "swift and aggressive steps" to enforce the whistleblower protection ruling "within the AI sector."
The letter indicates that the SEC's Whistleblower Office was provided "significant documentation" showing OpenAI's NDAs allegedly "violated the law by requiring its employees to sign illegally restrictive contracts to obtain employment, severance payments and other financial consideration."
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The alleged violations documented by the whistleblowers include confidentiality requirements, a requirement to waive compensation from the SEC program, non-disparagement clauses that "failed to exempt disclosures of securities violations," as well as a requirement that the company must consent to the disclosure of confidential information to federal authorities.
"We urge the commissioners to immediately approve an investigation into OpenAI's prior NDAs and to review current efforts apparently being undertaken by the company to ensure full compliance with [the SEC rule]," the letter reads.
"The importance of taking appropriate enforcement action is critical - not as an attack on OpenAI or to hinder the advancement of AI technology, but to send the message to others in the AI space, and to the tech industry at large, that violations on the right of employees or investors to report wrongdoing will not be tolerated.
A former OpenAI employee, William Saunders, has recently taken to two podcasts to address his own concerns about the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) as well as the people who control it — including Altman himself.
Saunders was employed at OpenAI as a member of technical staff from February 2021 to February 2024, according to his LinkedIn page.
He expressed problems with OpenAI with how the company would prioritize product launches over safety and privacy concerns. Saunders called OpenAI's product releases "most unsettling."
Saunders is one of the 13 former and current OpenAI and Google DeepMind employees that wrote a letter, titled A Right to Warn, about the importance of having people within the AI community speak up about their concerns regarding the fast-developing technology.
Altman, the OpenAI co-founder and CEO who has become the public face of AI, recently hinted at his plans for future iterations of ChatGPT. In a talk at the 20th Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, Altman said that the development of increasingly advanced AI — including AGI, or artificial general intelligence — is "inevitable."
"Artificial intelligence is rapidly and dramatically altering the landscape of technology as we know it," Grassley told Newsweek. "Monitoring and mitigating the threats posed by AI is a part of Congress's constitutional responsibility to protect our national security, and whistleblowers will be essential to that task."
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