Make it stop. Please make it stop. Being not-for-profit was surely the very essence of OpenAI, its reason to exist in contrast to other companies chasing the dollar via artificial intelligence. Wasn’t it? Not any longer.
According to reports, OpenAI plans to completely restructure itself. Gone will be the nonprofit remit, the control not by a CEO or by bloodsucking shareholders but a board with a clear mission to do AI safely and not just for the dollar. In comes a full for-profit model, reportedly with CEO Sam Altman taking on a nice, big chunk of equity and ultimate control of the organisation.
Strictly speaking, the nonprofit organisation will continue to exist. However, it will only own a minority stake in the new for-profit structure, and thus lose outright control.
These reports come alongside official news of several significant departures from OpenAI, including its CTO Mira Murati, its Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew and Research VP Barret Zoph. The clear implication, according to reports, is that OpenAI’s restructuring plans and these departures are no coincidence, they are directly correlated.
Of course, OpenAI’s nonprofit purity was diluted some time ago when the organisation set up a for-profit subsidiary that enabled large quantities of Microsoft cash to be funnelled in to invest in scaling up the project. AI chips, as we know, do not come cheap.
If the move does happen, it perhaps puts a different spin on the rather bizarre fired-then-rehired spectacle late last year that saw Sam Altman ejected by the OpenAI board, only to be reinstated mere days later along with a new-look and presumably pro-Altman board. It was all a bit Soviet Politburo in the 1950s, albeit careers rather than actual lives were being knifed.
Anyway, it’s certainly worth reflecting on OpenAI’s self-stated mission statement from 2015, which is still posted on the organisation’s website:
“OpenAI is a non-profit artificial intelligence research company. Our goal is to advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return. Since our research is free from financial obligations, we can better focus on a positive human impact.”
That’s entirely unambiguous, so a shift to for-profit would undeniably be a fundamental change. And would require something of a website purge, if nothing else. But somehow, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise.
We’ve been here before, of course, what with Google’s once motto, “Don’t be evil” eventually being phased out in 2018 as the company became ever more focused on pure commercial concerns. In general, things seem to happen pretty fast, so it’s perhaps no surprise if it takes less than a decade for OpenAI to ditch the noble nonprofit cause.
And needless to say, we will welcome whatever AI overlords OpenAI foists upon us, for profit, not for profit or otherwise.
