Parties representing anonymous whistleblowers from artificial intelligence firm OpenAI have reportedly filed a grievance with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission over the firm\u2019s alleged use of illegal non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).<\/p>\n Documents sent exclusively to the Washington Post, per a report,\u00a0indicate<\/a>\u00a0that a group of whistleblowers associated with OpenAI filed a complaint with the SEC in June alleging the company made former employees sign restrictive, illegal NDAs in order to prevent them from discussing safety and other concerns with federal agents.<\/p>\n According to the post, the documents it received, linked here, were sent to the newspaper by Senator Chuck Grassley\u2019s office:<\/p>\n \u201cA copy of the letter, addressed to SEC chairman Gary Gensler, was sent to Congress. The Post obtained the whistleblower letter from Grassley\u2019s office.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Grassley appeared to side with the whistleblowers in comments published by the Post. He stated that \u201cOpenAI\u2019s policies and practices appear to cast a chilling effect on whistleblowers\u2019 right to speak up\u201d and that \u201cOpenAI\u2019s nondisclosure agreements must change.\u201d<\/p>\n The document\u00a0referring<\/a>\u00a0to the original complaint \u2014 which hasn\u2019t yet been publicly disclosed \u2014 was specifically addressed to SEC Chair Gary Gensler.\u00a0Text throughout the filing pointed to the perceived urgency of the situation stating that the SEC \u201cswift and aggressive steps\u201d to enforce rules related both to whistleblower laws and President Biden\u2019s executive order\u00a0directing<\/a>\u00a0domestic tech agencies to build AI systems safely, securely, and in a trustworthy manner.<\/strong><\/p>\n While the White House executive is essentially toothless \u2014 it references no law and provides no penalty for defiance \u2014 it does outline the current administration\u2019s outlook towards the sector.<\/p>\n The company appears to be trying to distance itself from its past practices related to NDAs, but no wrongdoing was admitted in commentary provided to the post.<\/p>\n Hannah Wong, an OpenAI spokesperson, told the Post that OpenAI\u2019s \u201cwhistleblower policy protects employees\u2019 rights to make protected disclosures,\u201d adding that the company believes \u201crigorous debate about this technology is essential and have already made important changes to our departure process to remove nondisparagement terms.\u201d<\/p>\n Cointelegraph reached out to OpenAI for comment but didn\u2019t receive an immediate response.<\/p>\n OpenAI currently faces a number of lawsuits over its alleged \u201cscraping\u201d of copyrighted materials to train its ChatGPT system. However, the firm continues to ink partnerships as it progresses toward its next AI model,\u00a0purportedly dubbed \u201cStrawberry.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/121bf068-1f08-4125-a3cb-9f4fe313.jpg?itok=QjzUa58p\")
<\/picture><\/a><\/p>\nIllegal NDAs?<\/h2>\n
OpenAI\u2019s response<\/h2>\n