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“OpenAI Alums, Nobel Laureates Urge Regulators to Save Company’s Nonprofit Structure” by garrison
Converting to a for-profit model would undermine the company's founding mission to ensure AGI "benefits all of humanity," argues new letter
This is the full text of a post from Obsolete, a Substack that I write about the intersection of capitalism, geopolitics, and artificial intelligence. I’m a freelance journalist and the author of a forthcoming book called Obsolete: Power, Profit, and the Race to Build Machine Superintelligence. Consider subscribing to stay up to date with my work.
Don’t become a for-profit.
That's the blunt message of a recent letter signed by more than 30 people, including former OpenAI employees, prominent civil-society leaders, legal scholars, and Nobel laureates, including AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton and former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz.
Obsolete obtained the 25-page letter, which was sent last Thursday to the attorneys general (AGs) of California and Delaware, two officials with the power to block the deal.
Made [...]
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Outline:
(00:13) Converting to a for-profit model would undermine the companys founding mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity, argues new letter
(02:10) Nonprofit origins
(05:16) Nobel opposition
(06:32) Contradictions
(09:18) Justifications
(12:22) No sale price can compensate
(13:55) An institutional test
(15:42) Appendix: Quotes from OpenAI's leaders over the years
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First published:
April 23rd, 2025
Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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