Messiness of Open AI Trying to Shed its Nonprofit Roots
NYTimes has a new look at the challenge OpenAI is facing as it tries to shed its nonprofit routes, particularly with Sam Altman seeming to appear on both sides of that transaction. How OpenAI Hopes to Sever its Nonprofit Roots.
From the article: “The negotiations are complicated by the involvement of outside investors, including Microsoft. Microsoft’s approval may be required to make the final change, one person said.
They are further complicated by the involvement of Mr. Altman. He holds a position on the board of the nonprofit and is chief executive of the for-profit company, putting him effectively on both sides of this negotiation. But he has not recused himself, one person said.
“We don’t know what hat he’s wearing,” said Ellen Aprill, a professor at Loyola Law School in California who studies nonprofits and who has written about OpenAI’s structure. “He has such a strong interest in the new structure that it seems very hard to believe that he could be acting solely in his fiduciary duty as a member of the board of the nonprofit.”
If the nonprofit is removed from OpenAI’s chain of command, it could spin off into funding research on topics like ethics in artificial intelligence, one person said. But Mr. Altman and his colleagues have not yet assigned a dollar value to the nonprofit’s potential loss of control.
“Here, the asset in question is so unique and potentially so earth-shattering,” said Alexander L. Reid, a lawyer advising nonprofits at the law firm BakerHostetler. “How much is it worth to control the power to bring the genie out of the bottle?””