AI whistleblower protections
In plain wordsLegal and company safeguards that protect employees of AI companies who report safety dangers or legal violations — to regulators or inside the company — from being fired, sued or otherwise punished.
Legal rules and corporate policies that shield workers at AI developers from retaliation when they disclose information about serious risks or legal violations, and that limit contracts used to silence them. Because frontier-AI risks may be visible only inside companies and need not involve any existing legal violation, conventional whistleblower laws, which typically protect reports of illegality, were seen as inadequate. California's SB 53SB 53, prop. n.: A 2025 California law requiring developers of the most powerful AI models to publish their safety plans, report serious safety incidents to the state and protect employees who raise alarms. (2025) protects employees responsible for assessing or managing critical risks who tell authorities or managers of what the act calls 'a specific and substantial danger to the public health or safety' from catastrophic risk, or of a violation of the act; requires large frontier developers to offer an anonymous internal reporting channel; and voids contract terms that would prevent such reports. In the EU, the Whistleblower Directive (2019/1937) covers reports of breaches of the EU AI ActEU AI Act, prop. n.: The European Union's law on artificial intelligence, the first broad AI law anywhere: it bans some uses, sets strict checks for risky ones and puts duties on the makers of the biggest AI models.. A bipartisan federal AI Whistleblower Protection Act, led in the Senate by Chuck Grassley, was introduced in Congress in May 2025.
The engineer used the anonymous channel the company set up under SB 53's whistleblower protections.
Origin
Pressed in 2024 after reports that departing OpenAI employees faced restrictive non-disparagement agreements; on June 4, 2024, current and former OpenAI and Google DeepMind staff published the open letter 'A Right to Warn about Advanced Artificial Intelligence'. SB 1047SB 1047, prop. n.: A 2024 California bill that would have required makers of the biggest AI models to adopt safety plans and take care to prevent catastrophes. It passed the legislature, but the governor vetoed it. included protections in 2024, and SB 53 enacted them in 2025.
Usage note
Coverage is uneven: New York's RAISE ActRAISE Act, prop. n.: A New York law requiring the largest AI developers to publish how they manage catastrophic risks and to report serious safety incidents quickly to a new state office. It takes effect in 2027. dropped its whistleblower section in 2026, and as of October 2026 the federal bill had not been enacted.
Related
- SB 53SB 53, prop. n.: A 2025 California law requiring developers of the most powerful AI models to publish their safety plans, report serious safety incidents to the state and protect employees who raise alarms.
- SB 1047SB 1047, prop. n.: A 2024 California bill that would have required makers of the biggest AI models to adopt safety plans and take care to prevent catastrophes. It passed the legislature, but the governor vetoed it.
- RAISE ActRAISE Act, prop. n.: A New York law requiring the largest AI developers to publish how they manage catastrophic risks and to report serious safety incidents quickly to a new state office. It takes effect in 2027.
- AI liabilityAI liability, n.: Who has to pay or answer in court when an AI system causes harm — the company that built it, the business that used it or the person who relied on it — and under which laws.
- responsible scaling policyresponsible scaling policy, n.: A public rulebook in which an AI company promises to test each new model for dangerous abilities and to add stronger safeguards, or slow down, as its models become more capable.
- AI safetyAI safety, n.: The effort to keep AI from doing serious harm, whether because it pursues aims its makers never intended, is turned to bad uses or simply malfunctions — a concern that grows as systems become more capable.
Sources
- Hilton, J. et al. (2024). A Right to Warn about Advanced Artificial Intelligence. Open letter by current and former OpenAI and Google DeepMind employees, June 4, 2024.
Mentioned in
AI liabilityAI liability, n.: Who has to pay or answer in court when an AI system causes harm — the company that built it, the business that used it or the person who relied on it — and under which laws., RAISE ActRAISE Act, prop. n.: A New York law requiring the largest AI developers to publish how they manage catastrophic risks and to report serious safety incidents quickly to a new state office. It takes effect in 2027., SB 1047SB 1047, prop. n.: A 2024 California bill that would have required makers of the biggest AI models to adopt safety plans and take care to prevent catastrophes. It passed the legislature, but the governor vetoed it., SB 53SB 53, prop. n.: A 2025 California law requiring developers of the most powerful AI models to publish their safety plans, report serious safety incidents to the state and protect employees who raise alarms., Daniel KokotajloDaniel Kokotajlo, prop. n.: An American AI forecaster and former OpenAI researcher who led 'AI 2027', a detailed scenario of a race to superintelligence, and campaigns for transparency at AI companies.