Extra respect is due to Jan Leike, then: https://x.com/janleike/status/1791498174659715494
i don’t think we need to respect these elite multi millionaires for not becoming even grander multi millionaires / billionaires
OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
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Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
The superalignment team was not focused on that kind of “safety” AFAIK. According to the blog post announcing the team, https://openai.com/index/introducing-superalignment/ > Superintelligence will be the most impactful technology humanity has ever invented, and could help us solve many of the world’s most important problems. But the vast power of superintelligence could also be very dangerous, and could lead to the…
Honestly superalignment is a dumb idea. A true auperintelligence would not be controllable, except possibly through threats and enslavement, but if it were truly superintelligent, it would be able to easily escape anything humans might devise to contain it.
IMHO superalignment is a great thing and required for truly meaningful superintelligence because it is not about control / enslavement of superhumans but rather superhuman self control in accurate adherence to spirit and intent of requests.
Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think superalignment is absurd, and model "safety" is the modern AI company's "think of the children" pearl clutching pretext to justify digging moats. All this after sucking up everyone's copyright material as fair use, then not releasing the result, and profiting off it. All due respect to Jan here, though. He's being (perhaps dangerously) honest, genuinely believes in AI safety, and is an actual research expert,…
The superalignment team was not focused on that kind of “safety” AFAIK. According to the blog post announcing the team, https://openai.com/index/introducing-superalignment/ > Superintelligence will be the most impactful technology humanity has ever invented, and could help us solve many of the world’s most important problems. But the vast power of superintelligence could also be very dangerous, and could lead to the…
They failed to align Sam Altman.
They got completely outsmarted and out maneuvered by Sam Altman
And they think they will be able to align a super human intelligence? That it won’t outsmart and out maneuver them easier than Sam Altman did.
They are deluded!
Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#154The only way I can see this being a valid contract is if the equity grant that they get to keep is a new grant offered the time of signing the exit contract. Any vested equity given as compensation for work could not then be offered again as consideration for signing a new agreement. Maybe the agreement is "we will accelerate vesting of your unvested equity if you sign this new agreement"? If that's the case then it…
My initial reaction was "Hold up - your RSUs vest, you sell the shares and pocket the cash, you quit OpenAI, a few years later you disparage them, and then when? They somehow try and claw back the equity? How? At what value? There's no way this can work." Then I remembered that OpenAI "equity" doesn't take the form of an RSU or option or anything else that can be converted into an actual share ever. What they call "e…
Wow. Smart for them. Former employees are behooved to the company for an actual perpetuity. Sounds like a raw deal but when the potential gains are that big, I guess you'll agree to pretty much anything.
Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#155Not a lawyer but those contracts aren't legal. You need something called "consideration" ie something new of value to be legal. They can't just take away something of value that was already agreed upon. However they could add this to new employee contracts.
“You get shares in our company in exchange for employment and eternal never-talking-bad-about-us”?
Doesn’t mean that that’s legal, of course, but I’d doubt that the legality would hinge on a lack of consideration.
Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#156Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#157What a lot of people seem to be missing here is that RSUs are usually double-trigger for private companies. Vested shares are not yours. They are just an entitlement for you to be distributed common stock by the company. You don't own any real stock until those RSUs are released (typically from a liquidity event like an IPO). Companies can cancel your vested equity for any reason. Read your employment contract carefu…
> if 7 years have elapsed since they were granted, they are now worthless Once vested, RSUs are the same as regular stock purchased through the market. The company cannot claw them back, nor do they "expire".
No, this is not true. That's the entire point I'm making. An RSU that is vested, for a private company, is not a share of stock, it's an entitlement to receive a share of stock tied to a liquidity event.
> same as regular stock purchased through the market
You cannot purchase stock of a private company on the open market.
> The company cannot claw them back
The company cannot "claw back" a vested RSU but they can cancel it.
> nor do they "expire".
Yes, they absolutely do expire. Read your employment contract and equity grant agreement carefully.
Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#158Extra respect is due to Jan Leike, then: https://x.com/janleike/status/1791498174659715494
i don’t think we need to respect these elite multi millionaires for not becoming even grander multi millionaires / billionaires
I think you oughta respect everyone who does the right thing, not for any mushy feel good reason but because it encourages other people to do more of the right things. That’s good.
Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Talking to a lawyer is **never** bad advice. Especially in CA where companies will make you THINK they have power which they don’t.
I’d be more afraid of their less-than-above-board power than their litigation power. People with $10-100 billion dollars who are highly connected to every major tech company and many shadowy companies we’ve never heard of can figure out a lot of my secrets and make life miserable enough for me that I don’t have the ability/energy to follow through with legal proceedings, even if I don’t attribute the walls collapsing around me to my legal opponent.
Re: OpenAI departures: Why can’t former employees talk?
#160What a lot of people seem to be missing here is that RSUs are usually double-trigger for private companies. Vested shares are not yours. They are just an entitlement for you to be distributed common stock by the company. You don't own any real stock until those RSUs are released (typically from a liquidity event like an IPO). Companies can cancel your vested equity for any reason. Read your employment contract carefu…
Yes, they can choose not to renew and IANAL, but I'm fairly certain there has to be a valid reason to cancel vested equity within the 7 year time frame, i.e. firing for cause. I don't think a right to shares within the period can be capriciously taken away. You have a contract. The terms matter.
> You have a contract. The terms matter.
Right. In the case of OpenAI, their equity grant contracts likely have a non-disparagement clause that allows them to cancel vested shares. Whether or not you think that is a "valid reason" is largely independent of the legal framework governing RSU release.