Sam Altman's OpenAI illegally prevented whistleblowing: It happens a lot in Silicon Valley

OpenAI employees filed a complaint to the SEC, alleging that the company made them sign non-disclosure agreements that violated whistleblower rights.

OpenAI whistleblowers allege that the company illegally prohibited employees from disclosing information to regulators about the risks of its technology to humanity, the Washington Post reported, citing a seven-page letter the whistleblowers sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US market regulator.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the Microsoft Build conference at the Seattle Convention Center Summit Building in Seattle, Washington (AFP)

The SEC had established a whistleblower program due to the 2008 financial crisis to increase transparency and therefore, protect the economy.

What were the allegations aainst OpenAI?

The allegations include OpenAI making its employees sign agreements which require them to waive their federal rights to whistleblower compensation, as well as a mandate to seek permission from the company before disclosing information to federal authorities. This is a direct violation of the law, the report read.

The agreements threatened the employees with legal action for reporting violations without recognising their right to report such information to the government.

“Our whistleblower policy protects employees’ rights to make protected disclosures. Additionally, we believe rigorous debate about this technology is essential and have already made important changes to our departure process to remove nondisparagement terms,” OpenAI spokesperson Hannah Wong said in a response statement, according to the report.

Why did the OpenAI whistleblowers make their allegations?

The release of OpenAI’s latest AI model for ChatGPT was rushed and employees expressed concerns that the company “failed” to live up to its own security testing protocol to protect the AI from issues like teaching users to build bioweapons or helping hackers develop new kinds of cyberattacks, according to the report.

What are other examples of Silicon Valley companies hindering whistleblowers?

This is not an issue with OpenAI alone. Fighting against Silicon Valley companies using such types of agreements has been a long battle, the Washington Post quoted Chris Baker, a San Francisco lawyer as saying. He won a $27 million settlement for Google employees who made similar allegations of the tech giant blocking whistleblowers through similar means.

This was also seen with other companies with employees filing complaints with the SEC, with an example being Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.

OpenAI in May, had formed a Safety and Security Committee led by board members including CEO Sam Altman, as it begins training its next AI model, according to a Reuters report which added that OpenAI’s chatbots having generative AI capabilities have caused safety concerns.