Fear of whistleblowing | OpenAI, Google DeepMind employees warn of a culture of retaliation in open letter

Current and former employees at OpenAI and Google DeepMind have signed an open letter warning of the risks of artificial intelligence (AI), highlighting insufficient whistleblower protections and the threat of retaliation.

The letter is signed confidentially by six current and former OpenAI employees; and publicly by five former OpenAI employees, one former DeepMind employee, and one current DeepMind employee.

The authors state they “believe in the potential of AI technology,” but believe it also poses numerous risks including the further entrenchment of existing inequalities, manipulation and misinformation, and the loss of control of autonomous AI systems leading to human extinction.

They argue that AI companies have a "financial incentive" to avoid effective AI oversight, and "weak obligation" to share capabilities, limitations, risks, and the adequacy of protective measures.