Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp) “OpenAI HR told Leopold that a major reason for his firing was the memo he'd sent” — TopicDigg

OpenAI HR told Leopold that a major reason for his firing was the memo he'd sent the board warning how broken OAI's security was. What happened next makes me even prouder to call him a friend. People may have forgotten, but up until 2024, OpenAI had this secret non-disparagement clause in their off-boarding agreement. If you didn’t sign it, they'd clawback all your equity. As far as I'm aware, there were only two people ever who didn’t sign it - @DKokotajlo, and Leopold Aschenbrenner. Of all the researchers who left OpenAI before 2024, who had far more to fall back on, Leopold, all of 22 years old, was one of the only ones willing to refuse the golden handcuffs, and say, "I want to preserve my right to talk about safety and security at OAI.” We have a lot of disagreements, but he's among the most principled and resilient people I know.