[tedsanders]

OpenAI never enforced this, removed it, and admitted it was a big mistake. I work at OpenAI and I'm disappointed it happened but am glad they fixed it. It's no longer hanging over anyone's head, so it's probably inaccurate to suggest that Calvin's post is positive because he's trying to protect his equity from being taken. (though of course you could argue that everyone is biased to be positive about companies they own equity in, generally)

[gwern]

> It's no longer hanging over anyone's head,

The tender offer limitations still are, last I heard.

Sure, maybe OA can no longer cancel your vested equity for $0... but how valuable is (non-dividend-paying) equity you can't sell? (How do you even borrow against it, say?)

[tedsanders]

Nope, happy to report that was also fixed.

(It would be a pretty fake solution if equity cancellation was halted, but equity could still be frozen. Cancelled and frozen are de facto identical until the first dividend payment, which could take decades.)

[gwern]

So OA PPUs can now be sold and transferred without restriction to arbitrary buyers, outside the tender offer windows?

[tedsanders]

No, that's still the same.

[gwern]

Then how was that "fixed"?

[tedsanders]

Maybe I misinterpreted "can't sell" - I thought the implication was that even if they said they wouldn't cancel equity outright, they could still exercise power to freeze it out of tender offers, which would have a similar chilling effect. By "fixed" I meant to clarify that not only will they not cancel equity, there's no loophole where they'd specifically freeze it out of participating in tender offers.

[neonbjb]

Also work at OpenAI. Every tender offer has made full payouts to previous employees. Sorry to ruin your witch hunt..

[gwern]

I think the fact that you consider that a defense is a good illustration of why I had to ask that question. ("Yes, the gun is on the table, but the trigger has never been pulled. Sorry to ruin your witch hunt.")