OpenAI looks to shift away from nonprofit roots and convert itself to for-profit company

2 years ago by girlfreddy to c/news

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 company’s board is considering a decision that would change the company 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.

BertramDitore 116 points 2 years ago

This was so predictable. It seems they only care about profits now, and also positioning themselves to be a monopoly, so they really haven’t been compatible with the non-profit model for a while. Especially since they just raised more than $6 billion.

It’s truly amazing to me that a “non-profit” that has disingenuously represented itself from day one, and is based almost entirely on the theft of intellectual property that would get normal individuals prosecuted out the ass, can continue to rake in absurd amounts of cash. I really dislike this company.

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prole 4 points 2 years ago

The government should just nationalize them

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BertramDitore 3 points 2 years ago

I would tend to agree. I feel the same way about Amazon Logistics. The whole packaging and delivery side of Amazon should be brought under the USPS so every driver gets a fair wage and job protections. USPS already delivers so much of their stuff anyway, and Amazon shouldn’t be in control of the marketplace and the whole shipping process and infrastructure.

OpenAI is relying on all of human knowledge to build their product, regardless of whether or not it falls under copyright protection, so while the government doesn’t need more power, it’s still probably the best positioned to regulate this stuff, and that’d be much easier if they had direct control.

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ryan213 57 points 2 years ago

Absolutely nobody saw that coming...

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DarkCloud 50 points 2 years ago

Next you're going to tell me they were never open source (they were never open source).

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futatorius 1 point 2 years ago
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xmunk 50 points 2 years ago

Sam Altman is and always has been yet another tech bro.

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Lucidlethargy 7 points 2 years ago

Every time I've heard anything about this guy, it's always made me think "oh, that guy is a total piece of shit."

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xmunk 1 point 2 years ago

Yea his "funny story" about carrying around a briefcase to explode his data center is just an asshat wanting to play James Bond.

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x00za 32 points 2 years ago
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bamfic 7 points 2 years ago

They should change the name to a single letter. Like Y.

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futatorius 1 point 2 years ago
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x00za 1 point 2 years ago
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ohellidk 28 points 2 years ago

ClosedAI

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leadore 27 points 2 years ago

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afk_strats 3 points 2 years ago

Hey. What is this from?

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leadore 12 points 2 years ago

That's Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle from the old Andy Griffith Show. He also played the same character on Gomer Pyle USMC

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afk_strats 5 points 2 years ago

This solved a 20-year mistery for me. If you listen to Pink Floyd - Nobody Home, I think this plays at 3:00

YouTube link

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leadore 3 points 2 years ago

Yep, that's him, that's exactly how he would say it!

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jjjalljs 26 points 2 years ago

Just guillotine the rich already

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monotremata 20 points 2 years ago

Capitalism is already a superintelligence, and its goals are misaligned with those of humanity.

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bamfic 4 points 2 years ago path: 0 12583630 12586300, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 2
CondensedPossum 1 point 2 years ago

Corporations are driven by people — they aren’t completely autonomous agents. Yet if you shot the CEO of Exxon or any of the others, what effect would it have? Another person of much the same ilk would swiftly move into place, much as stepping on a few ants hardly effects an anthill at all.

I've never understood why people feel compelled to share this take.

Edit, clarity: The quoted common rhetorical statement, not the overall essay's conclusions about AI.

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futatorius 1 point 2 years ago
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toastus 19 points 2 years ago

How can it be a thing to just make a non profit organization into a for profit organization?

I thought non profits have benefits when it comes to taxation and regulations.
Why can it be allowed that the new for profit organization can just reap the rewards from those benefits that it used to grow into what it is now?

That seems to me like it should be plainly illegal.

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oyo 2 points 2 years ago

Immediate back taxes on everything prior

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futatorius 1 point 2 years ago
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Enkers 19 points 2 years ago

Shocking. Absolutely shocking, I say. It's almost like we've seen this exact pattern a hundred times before.

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fine_sandy_bottom 14 points 2 years ago

Fuck these cunts.

God I hope open source models eat their lunch.

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BaroqueInMind 4 points 2 years ago path: 0 12583488 12584370, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 2
futatorius 1 point 2 years ago
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tired_n_bored 1 point 2 years ago

Llama is open source, supported by facebook. MistralAI is not too much behind either

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Vivendi 12 points 2 years ago
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PriorityMotif 1 point 2 years ago

Is there an easy program to run one on an Intel GPU?

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Vivendi 2 points 2 years ago
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PriorityMotif 1 point 2 years ago

I gave it a shot but the program just crashes in Windows 11. It may be because I only have 4gb of vram.

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Vivendi 1 point 2 years ago
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stoly 10 points 2 years ago

I was looking for a job in the San Fran area by keyword for a product I am a near expert on. I happened to find a listing for a position that I was qualified for at OpenAI. The post was truly creepy and had a weird fascist smear all over it where they were writing in all caps, multiple times that there would be no work from home or even hybrid work. It was unnecessary and very strange. I ran away and never looked back. Nothing of this surprises me.

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lagomorphlecture 9 points 2 years ago

I'm shocked, I tell you.

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homesweethomeMrL 8 points 2 years ago

Member when the daily show (or was it Last Week Tonight) would show clips of Jared Kushner and have Gilbert Gottfried voice him?

That’s what needs to happen for this bro.

(RIP Gilbert)

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TheLemming 3 points 2 years ago

That'd be season 3-4 of last week tonight. They have been gradually posting all of the full length episodes on the LWT YouTube account for the last few months if you'd like to watch John Oliver slowly descend into madness. It's amazing how similar the early stories are, despite the show being out for so long.

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FlyingSquid 8 points 2 years ago

AI is going to save the world, but we need to maximize profit for our shareholders to do it!

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orcrist 7 points 2 years ago
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beebarfbadger 3 points 2 years ago

Gotta milk any remaining goodwill while it's still there.

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futatorius 2 points 2 years ago
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