U.S. Senator from Maine Angus King (I) on Monday joined four of his colleagues on a letter pressing OpenAI for answers about its safety and employment practices after a group of whistleblowers filed a complaint alleging the company illegally prohibited its employees from warning regulators about the risks of its artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

In their letter addressed to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the group of Senators requested information on what steps the company is taking to “meet its public commitments on safety,” its cybersecurity policies, and how it treats current and former employees who voice concerns.

“Given OpenAI’s position as a leading AI company, it is important that the public can trust in the safety and security of its systems,” the Senators, led by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), wrote.

“This includes the integrity of the company’s governance structure and safety testing, its employment practices, its fidelity to its public promises and mission, and its cybersecurity policies,” they wrote.

Sen. King and his colleagues pointed to OpenAI partnering with the U.S. government to develop cybersecurity tools “to protect our nation’s critical infrastructure,” stating that it is “not acceptable” to have “unsecure or otherwise vulnerable AI systems.”

OpenAI, the San Francisco-based startup behind popular generative AI tool ChatGPT, has recently come under scrutiny after a group of anonymous whistleblowers sent a letter to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) accusing the company of forcing employees to sign illegal nondisclosure agreements.

The whistleblowers alleged that OpenAI forced employees to sign restrictive agreements to waive their rights to whistleblower compensation in violation of federal law, and required staff to get permission from the company before disclosing safety concerns to federal authorities.

“Given the potential that advanced AI could ‘pose an existential risk to humanity,’ restrictive nondisclosure agreements are particularly egregious,” the whistleblowers wrote in their seven-page complaint, first reported by The Washington Post earlier this month.

In a Tuesday statement to The Hill, an OpenAI spokesperson said “artificial intelligence is a transformative new technology and we appreciate the importance it holds for U.S. competitiveness and national security.”

“We take our role in developing safe and secure AI very seriously and continue to work alongside policymakers to establish the appropriate safeguards going forward,” the company spokesperson told The Hill.

The group of Senators asked OpenAI to confirm that the company will not enforce any of the alleged restrictive nondisclosure and non-disparagement agreements, and asked if the company has procedures in place for its employees to raise concerns about cybersecurity and safety.

The lawmakers further requested that OpenAI share what cybersecurity protocols it has in place to protect its AI models and intellectual property from being stolen by “malicious actors or foreign adversaries,” and asked the company to commit to making its future model available to federal agencies for testing before release.