Sam Altman 'Genuinely Embarrassed' by OpenAI's Severe NDAs

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On Friday, following the departure of several high-profile OpenAI employees, a Vox story revealed that OpenAI employees are required to sign a restrictive off-boarding agreement. Now, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says some part of the agreement should have never happened and it's "one of the few times I've been genuinely embarrassed running OpenAI."

The agreement includes both nondisclosure and non-disparagement provisions that forbid departing employees from criticizing OpenAI for life; they can't even say they signed an NDA. Not signing the agreement or breaking it means former employee lose all their vested equity in the company.

"We have never clawed back anyone's vested equity, nor will we do that if people do not sign a separation agreement (or don't agree to a non-disparagement agreement). Vested equity is vested equity, full stop," Altman said in a Saturday post on X.

"There was a provision about potential equity cancellation in our previous exit docs; although we never clawed anything back, it should never have been something we had in any documents or communication. 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."

Altman says OpenAI is now revamping its exit paperwork. "If any former employee who signed one of those old agreements is worried about it, they can contact me and we'll fix that too. Very sorry about this."