AI Industry Insiders Demand Whistleblower Protections in an Open Letter

On Tuesday, a collective of present and past staff members from leading artificial intelligence firms released an open letter highlighting concerns regarding the industry’s insufficient safety regulations. They advocated for enhanced safeguards for whistleblowers. This letter, advocating for an “AI warning right,” represents one of the most notable public expressions of AI-related risks by industry insiders, who typically operate within a culture of secrecy. Signed by eleven current and former OpenAI employees and two individuals from Google DeepMind, including one who had prior experience at Anthropic, the letter underscores growing apprehensions about AI safety.
“AI companies possess substantial non-public information about the capabilities and limitations of their systems, the adequacy of their protective measures, and the risk levels of different kinds of harm,” the letter states. “However, they currently have only weak obligations to share some of this information with governments and none with civil society. We do not think they can all be relied upon to share it voluntarily,” the letter reads.