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Leaked OpenAI documents reveal aggressive tactics toward former employees

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Re: Leaked OpenAI documents reveal aggressive tactics toward former employees

#431

Post by JumpCrisscross »

danielmarkbruce wrote: post #252
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The ability to do it was almost certainly already in place Why? OpenAI is a shitshow. Their legal structure is a mess. Yanking vested equity on the basis of a post-purchase agreement signed under duress sounds closer to securities fraud than anything thought out.

I'm not saying it was thought out, I'm saying it was in place. My understanding is that the shareholders agreement had something which enabled the canceling of the shares (not sure if it was all shares, shares granted to employees, or what). I have not seen the document, so you may be right, but that's my understanding.

> the shareholders agreement had something which enabled the canceling of the shares

OpenAI doesn't have shares per se, since they're not a corporation but some newfangled chimeric entity. Given the man who signed the documents allegedly didn't read them, I'm not sure why one would believe everything else is buttoned up.

Re: Leaked OpenAI documents reveal aggressive tactics toward former employees

#432

Post by mpweiher »

ornornor wrote: post #415
ungreased0675 wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anytime someone tried to get me to sign a terrible contract, they always said “This is just standard stuff.”

Same. And in the same breath they also added “this is never used anyway, it’s just the template”. But “no it can’t be removed from the contract”

I always respond with "if it's never enforced, then you'll be fine with me taking it out"

Then I strike the offending passage out on both copies of the contract, sign and hand it back to them.

Your move.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Leaked OpenAI documents reveal aggressive tactics toward former employees

#433

Post by ruszki »

5e92cb50239222b wrote: post #11
mateus1 wrote: post #4

What surprises me about these stories surrounding openAI is how they apologize while lying and downplaying any blame. Do they expect anybody to believe they didn’t know about clawback clauses?

Do they care? The mob will shout for a week or two and then turn their attention somewhere else. spez (the reddit chief) said something like that about their users, and he was absolutely right. A few days ago I was re-reading some of those threads about reddit API changes from ten months back where so many users claimed it was their last message and they were leaving for good. Almost none of them did. I checked two d…

I haven't stopped using it immediately, but it definitely added to the growing list of problems. I don't use that site anymore, except when a search result directs me there. Even then it's a second choice of mine, because I need to disable my VPN to access it, and I won't login.

Re: Leaked OpenAI documents reveal aggressive tactics toward former employees

#434

Post by mrtksn »

5e92cb50239222b wrote: post #11
mateus1 wrote: post #4

What surprises me about these stories surrounding openAI is how they apologize while lying and downplaying any blame. Do they expect anybody to believe they didn’t know about clawback clauses?

Do they care? The mob will shout for a week or two and then turn their attention somewhere else. spez (the reddit chief) said something like that about their users, and he was absolutely right. A few days ago I was re-reading some of those threads about reddit API changes from ten months back where so many users claimed it was their last message and they were leaving for good. Almost none of them did. I checked two d…

I actually find myself to be using reddit much less. It’s not that I protesting, but it feels like the community changed into something more like Facebook folks. It doesn’t feel cutting edge anymore, it’s much more tamed stale. The fresh stuff isn’t on Reddit anymore.

Re: Leaked OpenAI documents reveal aggressive tactics toward former employees

#435

Post by notshift »

So what happened to Daniel Kokotajlo, the ex-OAI employee who made a comment saying that his equity was clawed back? Was it a miscommunication and he was referring to unvested equity, or is Sama just lying?

In the original context, it sounded very much like he was referring to clawed-back equity. I’m trying to find the link.

Re: Leaked OpenAI documents reveal aggressive tactics toward former employees

#436

Post by eterevsky »

NotSammyHagar wrote: post #22
tedivm wrote: post #6

If this really was a mistake the easiest way to deal with it would be to release people from their non disparagement agreements that were only signed by leaving employees under the duress of losing their vested equity. It's really easy to make people whole for this, so whether that happens or not is the difference between the apologies being real or just them just backpedaling because employees got upset. Edit: Looks…

This reads like more than standard restrictions. I hate those like everyone, they are just intended to chill complaints in my opinion with enough question to scare average people without legal expertise (like me, like most devs), just like non-competes used to seemingly primarily be used to discourage looking at other jobs, separate from whether it was enforceable - note the recent FTC decision to end non-competes. A…

Non-competes like this are often not enforceable, but it depends on the jurisdiction.

Re: Leaked OpenAI documents reveal aggressive tactics toward former employees

#437

Post by [deleted] »

suroot wrote: post #187
nwoli wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re definitely doing this on comments too. I’ve had negative towards altman comments at the top dropped to below the negative voted ones in the past

Wait til you hear what happened to Michael O’Church.

[deleted]

Re: Leaked OpenAI documents reveal aggressive tactics toward former employees

#438

Post by notachatbot1234 »

manlobster wrote: post #335

Do OpenAI employees actually get equity in the company (e.g. options or RSUs)? I was under the impression that the company awards "profit units" of some kind, and that many employees aren't sure how they work.

> many employees aren't sure how they work.

Why aren't they simply asking their product?

Re: Leaked OpenAI documents reveal aggressive tactics toward former employees

#439

Post by tgv »

istjohn wrote: post #107

I wonder if this HN post will get torpedoed as fast as the one from yesterday[0]. 0. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40435440

And today: a post about Johansson's voice was on the front page with quite a high score, and then disappeared. This is not the place to discuss OpenAI.

Re: Leaked OpenAI documents reveal aggressive tactics toward former employees

#440

Post by DonHopkins »

mpweiher wrote: post #432
ornornor wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. And in the same breath they also added “this is never used anyway, it’s just the template”. But “no it can’t be removed from the contract”

I always respond with "if it's never enforced, then you'll be fine with me taking it out" Then I strike the offending passage out on both copies of the contract, sign and hand it back to them. Your move. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Don't forget to initial the crossed-out section and draw a passive aggressive happy face!
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