Businesses have come up with workarounds that protect individuals’ liberty while giving investors the assurance they need to commit lots of money to companies. Two years ago, I wrote about how noncompete agreements have been abused to trap workers and suppress wages of mid- and low-level workers, such as employees of fast-food restaurants. For high-level executives such as Altman and Brockman, there is a stronger argument for noncompete agreements. Bloomberg reported in October that OpenAI was in talks to sell existing employees’ shares at a price that would value the overall company at $86 billion. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in objecting to the F.T.C.’s proposed rule about noncompete agreements, cited its economist John McAdams, who wrote in 2019 in a research paper for the F.T.C.

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Persons: Sam Altman, ”, Altman, Brockman, OpenAI, John McAdams Organizations: Federal Trade Commission, Bloomberg, U.S . Chamber of Commerce Locations: California