I have more examples, but unfortunately some of them I can’t talk about. A few random things that come to mind:
OpenPhil routinely requests that grantees not disclose that they’ve received an OpenPhil grant until OpenPhil publishes it themselves, which usually happens many months after the grant is disbursed.
Nearly every instance that I know of where EA leadership refused to comment on anything publicly post-FTX due to advice from legal counsel.
So many things about the Nonlinear situation.
Coordination Forum requiring attendees agree to confidentiality re: attendance and content of any conversations with people who wanted to attend but not have their attendance known to the wider world, like SBF, and also people in the AI policy space.
That explains why the NDAs are costly. But if you don’t sign one, you can’t e.g. get the OpenPhil grant. So the examples don’t explain how “it’s almost never worth signing one”.
Not all of these are NDAs; my understanding is that the OpenPhil request comes along with the news of the grant (and isn’t a contract). Really my original shortform should’ve been a broader point about confidentiality/secrecy norms, but...
Say more please.
As a recent example, from this article on the recent OpenAI kerfufle:
If you don’t have more examples, I think
it is too early to draw conclusions from OpenAI
one special case doesn’t invalidate the concept
Not saying your point is wrong, just that this is not convincing me.
I have more examples, but unfortunately some of them I can’t talk about. A few random things that come to mind:
OpenPhil routinely requests that grantees not disclose that they’ve received an OpenPhil grant until OpenPhil publishes it themselves, which usually happens many months after the grant is disbursed.
Nearly every instance that I know of where EA leadership refused to comment on anything publicly post-FTX due to advice from legal counsel.
So many things about the Nonlinear situation.
Coordination Forum requiring attendees agree to confidentiality re: attendance and content of any conversations with people who wanted to attend but not have their attendance known to the wider world, like SBF, and also people in the AI policy space.
That explains why the NDAs are costly. But if you don’t sign one, you can’t e.g. get the OpenPhil grant. So the examples don’t explain how “it’s almost never worth signing one”.
Not all of these are NDAs; my understanding is that the OpenPhil request comes along with the news of the grant (and isn’t a contract). Really my original shortform should’ve been a broader point about confidentiality/secrecy norms, but...