That can't actually be the way it works. You can't say "sign this or we *take away something you're already legally entitled to". It has to have been something people agreed to beforehand, to at least some extent.
In any case, Sama's tweet says he is cancelling this practice and anyone affected by it can contact him to get their equity back.
They've said they've never clawed back anyone's equity in practice - which is not surprising! If you're threatening people you hopefully don't have to follow through on your threats very often! That's kind of the point of threatening people no? So I don't find that statement partically reassuring.
My bar for being convinced that this has been handled correctly: the guy who lost his equity gets it back, and other people who previously left openai confirm that they've had some of the restrictive terms of their exit contract (like non-disparagement) cancelled. Additionally, people who made a fuss tell us that they haven't been penalised in terms of access to future liquidity events.
edanm|1 year ago
In any case, Sama's tweet says he is cancelling this practice and anyone affected by it can contact him to get their equity back.
robbie-c|1 year ago
They've said they've never clawed back anyone's equity in practice - which is not surprising! If you're threatening people you hopefully don't have to follow through on your threats very often! That's kind of the point of threatening people no? So I don't find that statement partically reassuring.
Here's sama's tweet about how they're going to fix it: https://twitter.com/sama/status/1791936857594581428
My bar for being convinced that this has been handled correctly: the guy who lost his equity gets it back, and other people who previously left openai confirm that they've had some of the restrictive terms of their exit contract (like non-disparagement) cancelled. Additionally, people who made a fuss tell us that they haven't been penalised in terms of access to future liquidity events.