Here’s a fun way to test whether your company’s exit paperwork is problematic: see if someone is willing to light $2 million on fire rather than sign it.
That’s essentially what happened at OpenAI, where former researcher Daniel Kokotajlo forfeited roughly $2 million in vested equity rather than agree to a lifelong non-disparagement clause. His decision to walk away from that money, and then publicly criticize the company, triggered a backlash that forced OpenAI into a rare corporate retreat.
The clause nobody was supposed to notice
OpenAI had been including non-disparagement provisions in its departure paperwork that came with a particularly sharp set of teeth. Departing employees who refused to sign away their right to criticize the company risked losing their vested equity. Not unvested stock. Not future grants. Equity they had already earned.
On May 23, 2024, OpenAI officially retracted these agreements. The company stated it would not reclaim vested equity from former employees and removed the non-disparagement clauses from its standard exit paperwork entirely.
