On Friday, a group of former Openy employees filed an amicus brief proposed to support Elon Musk in his lawsuit against Open Eye, opposed the conversion from nonprofit to for-profit.
A brief submitted by Lawrence Less Rig, a Harvard professor and founder of Creative Commons, has appointed 12 former Openai employees: Stephen Adler, Rosemary Campbell, Neil Choudhry, Jacob Hilton, Daniel Cocotairo, Gretchen Kruger, Tudal Markov, Richard NGO, Zilish Suntory, Julish Suntory, and Zilish Suntory. It claims that if Openai’s nonprofit transfers the organization’s business operations, it will “a fundamental violation of its mission.”
Some former Staffers have previously opposed open-rai practices. Krueger asked the company to increase accountability and transparency, but Kokotajlo and Saunders previously warned Openai in a “reckless” race for AI dominance. Wainwright said opening should not be “because” [be trusted] When you promise to do the right thing later. ”
In a statement, an Openai spokesman said Openai’s nonprofit “will not go anywhere” and that the organization’s mission “will remain the same.”
“Our board meeting was very clear,” the spokesman told TechCrunch via email. “We are transforming our existing for-profit sector into public benefits companies (PBCs), which are structured in the same way as other AI labs like humanity. [Musk’s AI startup] xai. ”
Openai was founded as a nonprofit in 2015, but was converted to a “capped for-profit” in 2019 and is now about to rebuild it into PBC. When it moved to Cap’s for-profit organization, Openai retained its non-profit wing. This currently controls the stocks in the organization’s corporate arm.
Musk’s lawsuit against Openai denies the startup for abandoning its non-profit mission aimed at ensuring that AI research benefits all humanity. Musk had sought a preliminary injunction to stop the conversion of the open. The federal judge rejected the request, but allowed him to go to a ju trial in spring 2026.
According to an overview of Ex-Openai’s employees, Openai’s current structure is a nonprofit that controls groups of other subsidiaries, a “critical part” of the overall strategy and “important” to the organization’s mission. The restructuring that removes the dominant role of nonprofits is not only inconsistent with Openai’s mission and charter commitments, but also “violates the trust of employees, donors, and other stakeholders who have joined and supported the organization based on these commitments.”
“Openai has committed to some important principles to implement [its] The mission of the charter document states, “These commitments were taken very seriously within the company, repeatedly communicated and treated as internally binding. The court should recognize that maintaining the governance of nonprofits is essential to preserve Openai’s unique structure, designed to benefit humanity, rather than serving narrow economic benefits.”
Artificial general information, or AGI, is widely understood to mean AI that can complete any task a human can do.
Simple things say Openai often used its structure as an employment tool, repeatedly asserting its staff that non-profit controls were “important” in carrying out its mission. The brief talks about the Openai All Hands meeting towards the end of 2020. Meanwhile, Openai CEO Sam Altman has reportedly emphasized that governance and surveillance of nonprofits is “highest importance”: “ensure that safety and broad social benefits take precedence over short-term financial benefits.”
“It was common to cite Openai’s unique governance structure when recruiting conversations with candidates as an important differentiator between competitors such as Google and humanity, and as an important reason to consider joining the company,” reads the brief. “This same reason was also often used to convince employees, including some of us, who are considering leaving to stay at Openai.”
The simplest thing to say is that openai should be allowed to convert to a for-profit organization.[cut] “Concentrated between shareholders” who develop “corner” and powerful AI. For-profit Openai has little reason to comply with the “merge and support” clause of Openai’s current charter. This pledges Openai to support “value, safety-sensitive” projects that will halt the competition and achieve AGI.
Former Openai employees are participating in the growth of a cohort expressing strong opposition to Openai’s transition, as some of them were research and policy leaders for the company.
Earlier this week, groups of organizations, including nonprofits and labor groups, such as California Teamster, petitioned California Attorney General Rob Bonta to stop the opening from becoming a for-profit. They are actively pursuing that the company “failed to protect its charitable assets” and “submitting charity envoys to promote safe artificial intelligence.”
Encode, a nonprofit organization that co-hosts California’s ill-fated SB 1047 AI Safety Act, cited similar concerns in an Amicus brief filed in December.
Openai says the conversion will preserve the nonprofit and infuse the resources that will be spent on “charity initiatives” in areas such as healthcare, education and science. In exchange for control of Openai’s stock in companies, the nonprofit is reportedly reaping billions of dollars.
“We are actually preparing to build the best equipment nonprofit the world has ever seen, and we’re not steering it away,” the company wrote in a series of posts on Wednesday on X.
According to reports, Openai’s interests are high.
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