OpenAI said it disagreed with the Justice Department's findings but wanted to move ahead.
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The Justice Department said OpenAI and one of its subsidiaries discriminated against US workers by unfairly favoring workers with temporary visa status during the hiring process.On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced that OpenAI and Statsig, a subsidiary software development company based in Bellevue, Washington, would pay $3.2 million to settle the allegations."It is illegal to discriminate against U.S. workers by preferring temporary visa holders for jobs," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement. "This substantial settlement ensures that OpenAI redresses harm and changes its recruitment practices so that U.S. workers receive a fair opportunity for highly sought-after technology positions."OpenAI said it disagreed with the DOJ's findings, but settled the matter so it could move forward with a program to support employees "requiring immigration support.""OpenAI's mission is to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity," an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement. "Fulfilling that mission and maintaining America's leadership in AI requires attracting and retaining the best talent from the United States and around the world."While we disagree with the DOJ's findings, we reached this agreement to resolve the matter and move forward with our PERM program, which is critical for employees and candidates requiring immigration support."The Justice Department said it found "reasonable cause" to believe that both companies made it more difficult for US workers to apply for positions they hoped to fill with foreign workers through Permanent Labor Certification, a process known as PERM.
