An ex-employee of OpenAI has publicly criticized the company's labor practices, describing grueling work conditions that starkly contrast with the firm's public messaging around AI-accelerated productivity. The former staff member reported working up to 70 hours per week, a far cry from the four-day work week that OpenAI had pitched to other companies earlier this year as an AI-enabled productivity solution.
According to the ex-employee, the reality inside OpenAI involved frequent crisis meetings, weekend work requirements, extremely strict performance evaluations, and unexpected terminations. This account challenges the company's narrative about how AI could fundamentally improve work-life balance and human productivity—a vision OpenAI had actively promoted to other organizations as a model worth adopting.