www.lesswrong.com/posts/6j3kBHdowGLCeqobg/dear-god-please-do-not-resign-in-prote...
1 correction found
Think of Daniel Kokotajlo refusing to sign the NDA and losing out on a lot of money because of it.
Kokotajlo later said he ultimately kept the equity, and OpenAI said it never canceled vested equity. He was at risk of losing the money, but did not in fact lose it.
Full reasoning
This sentence is inaccurate in its description of the outcome. Daniel Kokotajlo has since publicly said that although he initially expected refusing to sign the exit agreement would cost him his equity, OpenAI later changed the policy and he kept the equity after all. In a 2025 interview with 80,000 Hours, he said: "I did end up getting to keep the equity" and "I got to keep the equity." In a 2024 interview with The Cognitive Revolution, he likewise said: "OpenAI changed their policies. So I got to keep my equity after all."
OpenAI also stated in a written response to Senator Schatz that it had "never canceled a current or former employee’s vested equity" and that current and former employees were informed that vested equity would not be canceled whether or not they had signed non-disparagement agreements.
So the accurate version is: Kokotajlo appears to have risked losing a large amount of money, and believed he would lose it at the time, but he did not ultimately lose out on that money.
3 sources
- Daniel Kokotajlo on what a hyperspeed robot economy might look like | 80,000 Hours
When asked about giving up his equity, Kokotajlo said: “I did end up getting to keep the equity ... So I got to keep the equity. But yeah, at the time I didn’t know that, didn’t think I’d get to keep it.”
- AGI Lab Transparency Requirements & Whistleblower Protections, with Dean W. Ball & Daniel Kokotajlo
Kokotajlo said that after media pressure, “OpenAI changed their policies. So I got to keep my equity after all.” The episode introduction also says “Daniel's individual equity has also since been restored.”
- OpenAI response to Senator Schatz on employment practices
OpenAI wrote: “OpenAI has never canceled a current or former employee’s vested equity... [it] would not cancel vested equity, regardless of any agreements, including non-disparagement agreements, that current and former employees may or may not have signed.”