(Reuters) – An OpenAI whistleblower has filed a complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeking an investigation into the artificial intelligence company’s alleged restrictive nondisclosure agreements, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing a letter sent to the commission. copy.
The whistleblower alleged that OpenAI issued overly strict employment, severance and confidentiality agreements to its employees, which could result in penalties for employees who raised concerns about OpenAI to federal authorities, the newspaper reported.
The artificial intelligence company made employees sign an agreement requiring them to waive their rights to federal whistleblower compensation, according to the letter reviewed by The Washington Post.
The agreements also require employees to obtain prior consent from the company if they want to disclose information to federal regulators, the paper said, adding that OpenAI did not create an exemption in its employee non-disparagement clause for disclosing securities violations to the SEC.
An SEC spokesman said in an emailed statement that it would not comment on the existence of potential whistleblower submissions.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Post report.
As AI models become more powerful, OpenAI’s chatbots with generative AI capabilities, such as conducting human-like conversations and creating images based on text prompts, have raised security concerns.
OpenAI formed a safety and security committee in May, which will be led by board members including CEO Sam Altman, to begin training its next artificial intelligence model.
