Watch: Whistleblowers say OpenAI employs ‘restrictive’ NDAs

Trouble could be on the horizon for OpenAI. A group of whistleblowers accused OpenAI of requiring its employees to sign illegally restrictive non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs.

The lawyers representing these whistleblowers sent a letter to SEC chair Gary Gensler, alleging that OpenAI’s contracts with current and former employees could illegally prevent them from alerting government agencies to harmful behavior.

According to the letter, OpenAI required employees, former employees and investors to solicit prior consent before disclosing any information to the federal government. This effectively would deter anyone from speaking out — except for this group of anonymous whistleblowers.

These allegations are ominous, given that a number of high-profile, safety-conscious OpenAI employees have departed the company this year. That includes Ilya Sutskever, a co-founder and former chief scientist at OpenAI.

For more about what this means for OpenAI, check out today’s TechCrunch Minute.