Ex-OpenAI employees sign open letter to California AG: For-profit pivot poses ‘palpable threat’ to nonprofit mission
More than 30 top experts – including nine former Openai employees – have urged California and Delaware lawyers to intervene in the proposed Openai adjustment, which will allow the company to buy itself from under nonprofit control. In a open letter, They warned that the transition would eliminate the major management care and endanger Founding mission of Openai to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) “benefits all humanity.”
The group, which also includes AI “Godfather” Geoffrey Hinton, Hugging Face Researcher and Chief Ethics Scientist Margaret Mitchell, and Stuart Russell, Computer Science Professor at UC Berkeley, published an open letter today on a website called Not for private gain And the letter was also shared with the nonprofit board of director of Openai.
The letter will come less than two weeks after twelve former Openai employees asked a federal judge for permission to weigh in Elon Musk's lawsuit against Sam Altman and the company. Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, who also signed the new open letter, filed a movement on behalf of former employees, whose detailed amicus briefly accused Openai of abandoning nonprofit roots and betrayal of the mission that originally attracted them to the organization.
The letter signators include some ex-openai employees who are also part of the Amicus Brief-Sina Steven Adler, Jacob Hilton, Daniel Kokotajlo, Gretchen Krueger and Girish Sustry–Gtily former OpenAi researchers Scott Aaronson, Ryan Lowe, Nisan Stiennon, and Anish Tondwal.
Openai is currently navigating the increasing investigation around its efforts to escape the control of nonprofit. It must complete the reorganization by the end of the year to secure the full $ 40 billion of the Softbank -led funding, completed in March. Notably, it requires approval from California Attorney General Rob Bonta to carry out its plan. The Bonta manages the state of the state's charity to ensure that their properties are used in accordance with their original charity purposes. It also requires approval from the Delaware Attorney General, as Openai is integrated as a nonprofit in Delaware (Openai, Inc.), which owns and manages the For-Profit Arm (Openai Global, LLC).
Other groups commented on the public about the reorganization of Openai: Two weeks ago, a coalition of nonprofits, foundations and labor groups encouraged California Attorney General Rob Bonta to stop Openai's efforts – with the focus on ensuring that the nonprofit received the market value of the market. The team that carries a new open letter, however, focuses on the main issue if the repair, which will provide control over the monitoring of the development of artificial general intelligence, or AGI, will benefit the original nonprofit mission
In the open letter, the signatories focus on removing nonprofit control over how the AGI developed and managed to “violate the special duty of assurance that debt to nonprofit beneficiaries” and “pose a palpable and recognizable threat” to Openai's charity – called “contrary to the certificate” [of Incorporation]. “
They warned that the suggested adjustment would undress California's lawyers and Delaware of their current power of administration, defeating their ability to “protect the beneficiaries of Openai: the public.”
To protect the public's interest, the letter is driven [its] Long -term mission. “
In response to a request for comment, an OpenAi spokesman shared the following statement: “Our board is very clear: Our nonprofit will be strengthened and any changes to our existing structure will be a public service, similar to many other anthropical labs – where some of the former employees are now working today – and Xai, except that it has not supported it. That while the for-profit has succeeded and growing, so does the nonprofit, allowing us to achieve the mission.
The Openai spokesman also referred to the recently launched nonprofit commission that will inform the future of Philanthropic efforts, “maximizing the impact for people and mission-driven organizations that address critical challenges to global health and education to public service and discovering the scientific. We look forward to our work.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
