By MATT O’BRIEN, KELVIN CHAN and THALIA BEATY | Associated Press
OpenAI’s history as a nonprofit research institute that also sells commercial products like ChatGPT may be coming to an end as the San Francisco company looks to more fully convert itself into a for-profit corporation accountable to shareholders.
The artificial intelligence company’s board is considering a decision that would change OpenAI into a public benefit corporation, according to a source familiar with the discussions who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about them.
While OpenAI already has a for-profit division, where most of its staff works, it is controlled by a nonprofit board of directors whose mission is to help humanity. That would change if the company converts the core of its structure to a public benefit corporation, which is a type of corporate entity that is supposed to help society as well as turn a profit.
No final decision has been made by the board and the timing of the shift hasn’t been determined, the source said.
FILE – Sam Altman, right, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and Mira Murati, chief technology officer, appear at OpenAI DevDay, OpenAI’s first developer conference, on Nov. 6, 2023 in San Francisco. Murati resigned from OpenAI on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Barbara Ortutay, File)
OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman acknowledged in public remarks Thursday that the company is thinking about restructuring but said the departures of key executives the day before weren’t related.
Speaking at a tech conference in Italy, Altman mentioned that OpenAI has been considering an overhaul to get to the “next stage.” But he said it was not connected to the Wednesday resignations of Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati and two other top leaders.
“OpenAI will be stronger for it as we are for all of our transitions,” Altman told the Italian Tech Week event in Turin. “I saw some stuff that this was, like, related to a restructure. That’s totally not true. Most of the stuff I saw was also just totally wrong,” he said without any more specificity.
“But we have been thinking about (a restructuring),” he added.
OpenAI said Thursday that it will still retain a nonprofit arm.
“We remain focused on building AI that benefits everyone and as we’ve previously shared we’re working with our board to ensure that we’re best positioned to succeed in our mission,” it said in a written statement. “The nonprofit is core to our mission and will continue to exist.”
OpenAI is not the first technology company to try to balance commercial and humanitarian objectives but its maneuvers drew a rebuke Thursday from Mozilla, which blends a nonprofit foundation and research hub with a company known for making the Firefox web browser.
“The principled staff exodus at OpenAI is another example of their true long-term goal: profit,” said Mozilla president Mark Surman in an emailed statement. “As far as we can tell, OpenAI no longer exists as a public interest organization.”
Altman asserted Thursday that the resignations of Murati, Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew and another research leader, Barret Zoph, were “just …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
