The 39-year-old Stanford dropout talked about turning OpenAI into a regular for-profit company, The Information reported Wednesday, citing a person who spoke to Altman.
Unlike most companies, OpenAI claims to be run as a “capped profit” business, with its for-profit arm governed by a nonprofit.
The company announced in a March 2019 blog post that it was abandoning its typical nonprofit status to better achieve its mission of building safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) for the world.
“We want to increase our ability to raise capital while continuing to fulfill our mission, and no pre-existing legal structure that we are aware of strikes the right balance,” OpenAI wrote. “Our solution is to create OpenAI LP as a hybrid of a for-profit and non-profit company, which we call a “capped profit” company.
OpenAI representatives did not respond to The Information’s request for comment.
Altman’s leadership of the Microsoft-backed AI upstart has not been without controversy. In November, Altman was briefly ousted after OpenAI’s former board alleged he was “not always candid in his communications” with them.
“For years, Sam had made things very difficult for the board by withholding information, misrepresenting what was happening at the company, and in some cases, outright lying to the board,” said Helen Toner, former OpenAI board member. interview on “The TED AI Show” podcast broadcast Tuesday.
Toner said Altman was a deceptive character who lied and withheld information from the board “repeatedly.” According to Toner, the OpenAI board has been kept in the dark about ChatGPT’s November 2022 release.
Instead, the board only learned about the chatbot, like everyone else, when news of its release began spreading on Twitter.
Toner, who left the board shortly after Altman was reinstated as CEO, also accused him of lying about his financial interests in OpenAI.
“Sam did not inform the board that he owned the OpenAI Startup Fund, even though he consistently claimed to be an independent board member with no financial interest in the company,” Toner said, referring to the company’s venture capital fund for AI startups.
On March 29, OpenAI revealed in an SEC filing that Altman no longer owned or controlled the venture fund.
The company said in a statement to Axios that the fund’s initial ownership structure was a “temporary arrangement and did not involve any personal investment or financial interest on Sam’s part.”
“We are disappointed that Ms. Toner continues to return to these issues,” OpenAI President Bret Taylor said in a statement to the podcast. “Our focus remains on moving forward and continuing OpenAI’s mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity.”
Representatives for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside of normal business hours.
businessinsider
