Did you know Musk Finds Allies in Former Staff as OpenAI Faces Fresh Legal Heat

 

A group of former OpenAI workers was seen filing a new amicus brief in support of Elon Musk’s legal proceedings against the makers of ChatGPT.

Musk has opposed the AI giant’s decision to transform from non-profit to for-profit as he feels the company was not built for this reason. As one of the founding members, the billionaire has shown open opposition to the move since day one and even sought legal action to prevent the change.

Now, he’s getting more support from those who once worked for the company, which is a major move. The latest brief was shared by Harvard Law Professor and Creative Commons founder. There are 12 former workers on the list who again oppose the decision for a change. They feel it strongly violates the whole purpose that OpenAI has had since day one.

Several former staffers are speaking out against the company’s practices in public now. The goal is to better accountability and show more transparency. We’ve seen experts call out the company’s current state as being reckless regarding AI dominance. Some go as far as to claim it cannot be relied upon as it only does the right thing after a while.

The newest statement has the firm’s spokesperson share that OpenAI’s nonprofit is not disappearing. Their mission would remain the same, and that includes serving the public for all the right reasons. Furthermore, the board has highlighted how they are only transforming to make OpenAI a public benefit company. There’s a similar structure to different AI labs out there, like Anthropic, where many former workers are employed. Others are making a huge name at Musk’s xAI.

The company was first founded in the year 2015 as a nonprofit firm, and it soon converted to become capped for-profit. Now, it’s working hard to restructure things. Even after transitioning to the capped profit status, it retained the nonprofit wing. The latter controls the company’s corporate arm.

Musk’s latest suit against the company accuses the startup of letting go of the nonprofit mission that’s aimed at making sure all AI research helps humanity. Remember, the billionaire already has a preliminary injunction to stop this transition, but the request was denied by the judge. It did, however, allow for entering into a jury trial next year.

As per the former OpenAI employees' brief, the company’s current model is important to the complete strategy and pivotal to its mission. Restructuring that gets rid of the nonprofit’s controlling role would go against its mission, but also the charter commitments. It similarly invalidates the trust of employees and donors, amongst other stakeholders.

AGI represents a kind of AI that can finish any human-related task. Now the brief alleges that OpenAI used the model as a recruitment tool and kept on reassuring staff that the main goal was nonprofit to fulfill its mission. Even the company’s own CEO shared how nonprofits’ oversight and governance are essential to benefit society and prioritize any financial gains in the short term.