Sam Altman Reponds to Employee Equity Issues

On Saturday, OpenAI, CEO Sam Altman stated that employees of the company who departed without signing a non-disparagement agreement risked forfeiting vested equity, though the policy remained unused.

The exit contract terms came to light after the departure of two major AI safety researchers from the company: Jan Leike, co-lead of Superalignment, and Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and former Chief Scientist. This was first covered by Vox News.

On Tuesday, both Sutskever and Leike parted ways with the company. While Sutskever stayed quiet about the details surrounding his exit, Business Insider reported that the OpenAI board member had been in a state of uncertainty following his bid to remove Altman from the CEO position.

Till Friday, Leike did not disclose the reason for his exit, but when he departed the company he said it was due to OpenAI’s “safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products.”

On Friday, Vox suggested that their silence might root in a nondisparagement agreement, which bars former employees from criticizing the company or disclosing the NDA’s existence.

On Saturday, Altman acknowledged the contract’s existence but stated that the company has never actually “clawed back anyone’s vested equity.” He also announced that the clause would be omitted from all future exit agreements.

Taking ownership Altman wrote on X, “this is on me and one of the few times i’ve been genuinely embarrassed running openai; i did not know this was happening and i should have.”

In the past, Business Insider reported that OpenAI’s employee compensation includes a flat base salary of $300,000 supplemented by an annual grant valued at about $500,000 in profit-sharing units.

In light of concerns about the extent to which its rapid product development focuses on AI safety research, OpenAI is reevaluating its goals. The company’s management has acknowledged many teams, maintaining a primary focus on safety while continuing to advance AI capabilities with caution.