<1% chance that Sam did not know what was in those exit docs

I've been disparaging Sam and OpenAI a fair amount in this thread, but I find it plausible that Sam didn't know.

I remember a job a few years ago where they sent me employment paperwork that was for a very different position than the one I was hired for. (I ended up signing it anyways after a few minor changes, because I liked it better than the paperwork I expected to see.)

If OpenAI is a "move fast and break things" sort of organization, I expect they're shuffling a lot of paperwork that Sam isn't co-signing on. I doubt Sam's attitude towards paperwork is fundamentally different from yours or mine.

If Sam didn't know, however, that doesn't exactly reflect well on OpenAI. As Jan put it: "Act with gravitas appropriate for what you're building." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40391412 IMO this incident should underscore Jan's point.

Accidentally silencing ex-employees is not what safety culture looks like at all. They've got to start hiring experts and reading books. It's a long slog ahead.

I don’t expect Sam to know every detail as CEO. But this particular clause is very impactful and something that the CEO of a startup would have had to sign off on rather than some underling making the decision on their own.

I don't think that's an accurate read. He did say

>if any former employee who signed one of those old agreements is worried about it, they can contact me and we'll fix that too

Yes, now that it's public knowledge. Had this not been leaked, that wouldn't have been an option.