This is what everyone felt was necessary for OpenAI to do if they wanted to seem reasonable and sincere. It’s the absolute best thing they could have done this week in response to criticism.

Some will say the clause never should have been there, but it’s worth noting that this action is indistinguishable from Sam Altman being unaware of the clause and unhappy with its existence. We can’t know whether that’s actually true of Sam Altman, but this is the action someone would take if it were, and with similar timing as well.

I wish all companies and all leaders (including Altman…) would react to most controversies with this level of accuracy and decisiveness. Even if it was done solely for personal gain, the world would be a much better place.

I can’t come up with any valid criticism for the actions taken in response to this coming to light this week, and not for lack of motivation. It seems to be one of the first responses from Altman that is truly beyond reproach.

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Edit: The “contact me if you need this fixed” tweet was a bit off-base, it would have been nice if it was preceded by “I’m meeting with lawyers to figure out how best to void these clauses for everyone”. But in light of this action I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt (for once) that they may have omitted a statement like that without first determining which courses of action are even possible, which can take a few days even when everyone goes lightspeed. There are valid questions that needed to be answered before anyone could say this, like “What are ‘these clauses’” and “Who is ‘everyone’v” because perhaps there’s a few people with remotely similar clauses which are reasonable for that employee and shouldn’t be adjusted. It takes time to figure these things out.

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Edit 2: While in this case I’m impressed with Altman’s actions more than communication, I’d like to point to the last public response I remember being impressed by. That was Mario Batali’s apology provided to the Eater publication[0]. It was an actual apology for his actions (rather than for the effects of his actions) which demonstrated sincere awareness that he himself caused pain and harm to employees, his own family and theirs, and business partners.

Sadly, if you google “Mario Batali apology” you’ll only get memes about cinnamon rolls. But it’s worth reading the Eater apology. Even with the most cynical eyes, it’s hard to criticize. Most people would have put in weasel words like “I apologize to the people who feel hurt and mistreated”…”No one has told me who is accusing me so I don’t know if I actually did these things.”…etc .He did not protect himself legally, he provided a true human response. And it really shines as a lonely light against all the other bad apologies we’ve seen.

> Batali did not deny all the allegations, saying that they “match up” with ways he has behaved.

> “I apologize to the people I have mistreated and hurt. Although the identities of most of the individuals mentioned in these stories have not been revealed to me, much of the behavior described does, in fact, match up with ways I have acted. That behavior was wrong and there are no excuses. I take full responsibility and am deeply sorry for any pain, humiliation or discomfort I have caused to my peers, employees, customers, friends and family.

> “I have work to do to try to regain the trust of those I have hurt and disappointed. For this reason, I am going to step away from day-to-day operations of my businesses. We built these restaurants so that our guests could have fun and indulge, but I took that too far in my own behavior. I won’t make that mistake again. I want any place I am associated with to feel comfortable and safe for the people who work or dine there.

> "I know my actions have disappointed many people. The successes I have enjoyed are owned by everyone on my team. The failures are mine alone. To the people who have been at my side during this time — my family, my partners, my employees, my friends, my fans — I am grateful for your support and hopeful that I can regain your respect and trust. I will spend the next period of time trying to do that.”

For those who typically criticize “I take full responsibility”…he really did. He fired himself from all his ventures and worked hard to make sure the businesses were handed off to good leadership and employees would be able to continue as best as possible. Reckoning with this hurt him deeply and he’s been a very different man/personality ever since, very quiet and lacking his ever-present gregariousness. It was like his light switched off.

0: https://ny.eater.com/2017/12/11/16759540/mario-batali-sexual...