Friday, a group of former OpenAi employees submitted a friendly project proposed in support of Elon Musk in his trial against Openai, opposing the planned conversion of Openai of a non -profit organization into a for -profit company.
The brief, tabled by the law professor of Harvard and founder of Creative Commons, Lawrence Lessig, appoints twelve former Openai employees: Steven Adler, Rosemary Campbell, Neil Chowdhury, Jacob Hilton, Daniel Kokotajlo, Gretchen Krueger, Todor Markov, Richard Ngo, Girish Sastry, Saunders, Carrol Wainwright and Jeffrey. He argues that, if for non -profit of Openai ceded control of the organization’s commercial operations, it “would fundamentally violate its mission”.
Several of the ex-stagorates have publicly spoken against Openai’s practices. Krueger called on the company to improve its responsibility and transparency, while Kokotajlo and Saunders previously warned that Optai was in a “reckless” race for the domination of the AI. Wainwright said that Optai “should not (trust) when he promises to do the right thing later”.
In a statement, an Openai spokesperson said that the non-profit organization of Openai “is going nowhere” and that the organization’s mission “will remain the same”.
“Our board of directors was very clear,” said the spokesman for Techcrunch by e-mail. “We transform our existing lucrative arm into a public service company (PBC) – the same structure as other AI laboratories like Anthropic – where some of these former employees are now working – and (Startup of Musk AI) XAI.”
Openai was founded as a non-profit organism in 2015, but it converted into “feet” in 2019, and is now trying to restructure itself once again in PBC. When he went to a capped goal, Openai has kept his non -profit wing, which currently has controlling participation in the organization’s business arm.
The pursuit of Musk against Openai accuses the startup of abandoning its non -profit mission, which aimed to guarantee that its research on AI benefits all of humanity. Musk had asked for a preliminary injunction to stop the conversion of Openai. A federal judge rejected the request, but authorized the case to go to a trial with jury in the spring of 2026.
According to the thesis of the ex -employees of Openai, the current structure of OpenAi – a non -profit organization controlling a group of other subsidiaries – is a “crucial part” of its global and “critical” strategy to the organization’s mission. The restructuring which deletes the role of control of the non -profit organization not only contradicts the commitments of mission and OPENAI charter, but “would also violate the confidence of employees, donors and other stakeholders who joined and supported the organization according to these commitments,” says the file.
“Openai has committed to several key principles to execute (its) mission in their charter document,” said the memory. “These commitments were made very seriously within the company and were communicated several times and treated internally as being binding. The court should recognize that the maintenance of non -profit governance is essential to preserve the unique structure of Openai, which has been designed to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits humanity rather than serving close financial interests. ”
The general artificial intelligence, or acted, is largely understood as signifying the AI which can accomplish any task that a human can.
According to the brief, Openai has often used its structure as a recruitment tool – and has repeatedly assured staff that non -profit control was “critical” in the execution of its mission. The brief recounts an OPENAI All-Hands meeting towards the end of 2020 during which the CEO of Openai, Sam Altman, would have stressed that the governance and surveillance of non-profit organizations were “primordial” in the “ensuring that the security and the general benefits were priority over the short-term financial gains”.
“In the recruitment of conversations with candidates, it was common to quote the unique governance structure of OpenAi as a factor of critical differentiation between Openai and competitors such as Google or Anthropic and an important reason for which they should consider joining the company,” reads the brief. “This same reason was also often used to persuade the employees who planned to leave so that the competitors remain in Openai – including some of us.”
The brief warns that, should be authorized to convert into a for -profit goal, it could be encouraged to “(coupe) corners” on safety work and develop a powerful AI “concentrated among its shareholders”. A for -profit OpenAi would have little reason to respect the “Fust and Assist” clause in the current Openai charter, which promises that Optai will cease to compete and to help any project “aligned on value and concerned about security” which reaches acts before, affirms the thesis.
The former employees of Openai, some of whom were research managers and policies of the company, join a growing cohort expressed a strong opposition to the transition from Openai.
Earlier this week, a group of organizations, including non -profit organizations and working groups like the California Teamsters, asked for the California prosecutor Rob Bonta to prevent Openai from becoming a lucrative goal. They said that society had “not protected its charity assets” and “actively overthrow its charity to advance secure artificial intelligence”.
Encode, a non -profit organization that co -pacarraine the legislation of SB 1047, the California IA security legislation, cited similar concerns in a memory of AMICUS December in December.
Openai said that his conversion would preserve his non -profit arm and would cause him resources to devote to “charitable initiatives” in sectors such as health care, education and science. In exchange for its control participation in the OpenAi company, the non -profit organization would have collected billions of dollars.
“We are in fact preparing to build the best equipped non -profit organization that the world has ever seen – we do not convert it,” wrote the company in a series of messages on X on Wednesday.
The challenges are raised for Openai, who must finish his for -profit conversion by the end of this year or the next one or risk renouncing part of the capital she has lifted in recent months, according to reports.
