Sam Altman accused of being shady about OpenAI’s safety efforts | OpenAI is facing increasing pressure to prove it’s not hiding AI risks after whistleblowers alleged to the SEC that the AI company’s non-disclosure agreements had illegally silenced employees

“In a [letter](https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/8bf076a6-663b-4552-be52-079b79274f9c.pdf) to OpenAI yesterday, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) demanded evidence that OpenAI is no longer requiring agreements that could be “stifling” its “employees from making protected disclosures to government regulators.”

Specifically, Grassley asked OpenAI to produce current employment, severance, non-disparagement, and non-disclosure agreements to reassure Congress that contracts don’t discourage disclosures. That’s critical, Grassley said, so that it will be possible to rely on whistleblowers exposing emerging threats to help shape effective AI policies safeguarding against existential AI risks as technologies advance.

Grassley has apparently twice requested these records without a response from OpenAI, his letter said. And so far, OpenAI has not responded to the most recent request to send documents, Grassley’s spokesperson, Clare Slattery, [told The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/08/02/openai-whistleblowers-grassley/).

In addition to requesting OpenAI’s recently updated employee agreements, Grassley pushed OpenAI to be more transparent about the total number of requests it has received from employees seeking to make federal disclosures since 2023. The senator wants to know what information employees wanted to disclose to officials and whether OpenAI actually approved their requests.

Along the same lines, Grassley asked OpenAI to confirm how many investigations the SEC has opened into OpenAI since 2023.”