OpenAI Officially Negotiating a For-Profit Conversion

OpenAI is in talks with the California attorney general's office to restructure itself to become a for-profit company, according to Bloomberg.

The move to operate as a for-profit company would mark a major change in the governance structure of the AI ​​pioneer, which started out as a nonprofit AI research lab. But the move should make OpenAI more attractive to investors.

OpenAI is in talks with the California attorney general's office to change its structure to become a for-profit company, a change that investors have welcomed.

Reuters first reported in early September that Microsoft-backed OpenAI was drawing up plans to restructure its core business into a for-profit benefit corporation, no longer governed by a nonprofit board. Sources later said the nonprofit OpenAI would continue to exist and own a minority stake in the for-profit company.

Last month, the maker of the increasingly popular app ChatGPT closed a $6.6 billion (US) funding round that could value the company at $157 billion and cement its position as one of the world's most valuable private companies.

To this day, many experts remain skeptical about what Open AI will look like, after shifting from a non-profit to a for-profit operation.

When it was founded in 2015, the artificial intelligence lab OpenAI was a nonprofit. Its mission was idealistic: to ensure that the high-risk work they were doing in artificial intelligence served the world. This was necessary because—at least according to the founders’ fervent belief—it would transform the world.

In some ways, OpenAI has succeeded beyond all imagining. “Artificial general intelligence” sounded like a pipe dream in 2015, but today we have interactive, creative, and conversational AI that can pass most of the tests of human ability we’ve put it through. Many people seriously believe that full general intelligence is on the horizon. OpenAI, which in the years since its founding has transformed from a nonprofit lab into one of the most highly valued startups in history, has been at the center of that transformation.

Co-founder and CEO Sam Altman was heavily criticized by some of his early colleagues for changing OpenAI's mission.

Of course, things have gotten messy in other ways. Even as it has essentially become a business, OpenAI has used nonprofit governance to keep the company focused on its mission. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has assured Congress that he has no stake in the company, and that the nonprofit board still has full authority to change course if it feels the company has strayed from its mission.

But that ultimately led to the board falling out with Altman last November in a messy conflict that the CEO ultimately won. Nearly the entire original leadership team left. In the year since, the board has largely been replaced and senior staff have left the company in droves, some warning that they no longer believe OpenAI will build superintelligence responsibly.

OpenAI is now trying to transition to a more conventional corporate structure, reportedly becoming a for-profit company like rival Anthropic. But the transition from nonprofit to for-profit is rare and likely won’t be as welcome as it was initially.

The world's richest billionaire Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI but left after a leadership dispute, described the for-profit transition as a blatant power grab, arguing that Altman and his associates had "systematically drained the nonprofit of valuable technology and personnel."

Mira Murati announced on September 26 that she was leaving OpenAI, where she had served as both CTO and interim CEO. Later, Director of Research Bob McGrew and Vice President of Research Barret Zoph also announced their departures. Many researchers who had been with OpenAI since its inception have also left the company.

(Source: Bloomberg, Reuters)

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/openai-chinh-thuc-dam-phan-chuyen-doi-muc-dich-hoat-dong-vi-loi-nhuan-192241105105149577.htm