OpenAI Under Senator Scrutiny Over Employee Disclosure Policies

Senior Republicans have questioned OpenAI about its policy regarding staff members speaking to regulators about the company's practices.

The letter, obtained by the Washington Post, was written by Senator Chuck Grassley and asks CEO Sam Altman to confirm that employees are allowed to engage with regulatory bodies without facing any retaliation.

Some employees have raised concerns about the company's practices, expressing worry that safety is being overlooked in favor of quickly getting products to market. OpenAI’s former chief scientist and co-founder Ilya Sutskever recently left the company over similar concerns to establish his own AI research lab focusing on safety.

Staff claim they face restrictive severance and employee agreements that penalize them if they raise concerns with governments or external bodies about the company.

OpenAI’s former Superalignment team lead Leopold Aschenbrenner claims he was let go from the company earlier this year after he raised concerns about the company’s lack of cybersecurity protections to both the board and external bodies.

Several OpenAI whistleblowers have since filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleging the company uses “illegally restrictive non-disclosure

Agreements (NDAs)” to prevent staff from speaking out.

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Senator Grassley wrote to Altman expressing concern that the company's agreements “may be stifling employees from making protected disclosures to government regulators.”

“It is crucial OpenAI ensure its employees can provide protected disclosures without

illegal restrictions,” Grassley wrote.

Altman was asked by the senator to provide copies of any updates to the language of its severance and employment agreements as well as what features are in its NDAs.

The OpenAI CEO has also been asked to disclose how many requests from staff to disclose information to federal authorities it has received and how many Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigations the company is currently facing.

In addition to the whistleblower complaint, OpenAI also faces an SEC investigation into last year’s boardroom turmoil to determine if shareholders were misled.

Days before Grassley’s letter was sent, senators including Brian Schatz and Peter Welch sent their own letter, seeking information on the company’s safety commitments and cybersecurity mitigations.

“Given OpenAI’s position as a leading AI company, it is important that the public can trust in the safety and security of its systems,” the letter reads. “This includes the integrity of the company’s governance structure and safety testing, its employment practices, its fidelity to its public promises and mission and its cybersecurity policies.”

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The senators are also seeking clarity regarding the company’s staff agreements and details of its security and cybersecurity protocols.

They also asked if OpenAI would commit to making its next foundation model available to U.S. government agencies for pre-deployment testing, review, analysis and assessments.