AI Safety Nonprofit Backs Musk's Bid to Block OpenAI For-Profit Shift
Encode, the group behind California's failed AI safety bill, seeks to support Elon Musk's legal effort to stop OpenAI from becoming a for-profit entity. The organization argues that transitioning to a standard corporate structure prioritizes investor returns over public safety.
Encode, a nonprofit organization known for co-sponsoring California's SB 1047 AI safety bill, asks a federal court for permission to support Elon Musk's injunction against OpenAI. The group argues that OpenAI's planned transition to a for-profit entity undermines its original mission to develop safe and beneficial artificial intelligence. Encode's leadership states that if artificial general intelligence is truly imminent, the public requires this technology to be managed by a charity bound to prioritize safety rather than financial returns for a select group of investors.
The proposed legal brief receives prominent backing from leading AI experts, including Nobel Laureate Geoffrey Hinton and UC Berkeley professor Stuart Russell. Hinton warns that allowing OpenAI to abandon its nonprofit status and the safety promises made in its charter simply because they are now inconvenient sets a dangerous precedent for the entire AI industry. He emphasizes that the company previously enjoyed significant tax benefits specifically because of its nonprofit structure.
OpenAI originally launches in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab but adopts a hybrid structure as its capital needs grow, taking massive investments from companies like Microsoft. The company now plans to convert its existing for-profit arm into a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation with standard stock shares. Encode's founder accuses OpenAI of internalizing the financial profits of AI while externalizing the risks to all of humanity, urging the courts to intervene and protect the public interest.