We're sunsetting PodQuest on 2025-07-28. Thank you for your support!
Export Podcast Subscriptions
cover of episode “OpenAI Alums, Nobel Laureates Urge Regulators to Save Company’s Nonprofit Structure” by garrison

“OpenAI Alums, Nobel Laureates Urge Regulators to Save Company’s Nonprofit Structure” by garrison

2025/4/24
logo of podcast LessWrong (30+ Karma)

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

AI Chapters
Chapters

Shownotes Transcript

** Converting to a for-profit model would undermine the company's founding mission to ensure AGI "benefits all of humanity," argues new letter**

This is the full text of a post from Obsolete, a Substack that I write about the intersection of capitalism, geopolitics, and artificial intelligence. I’m a freelance journalist and the author of a forthcoming book called Obsolete: Power, Profit, and the Race to Build Machine Superintelligence. Consider subscribing to stay up to date with my work.

Don’t become a for-profit.

That's the blunt message of a recent letter signed by more than 30 people, including former OpenAI employees, prominent civil-society leaders, legal scholars, and Nobel laureates, including AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton and former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz.

Obsolete obtained the 25-page letter, which was sent last Thursday to the attorneys general (AGs) of California and Delaware, two officials with the power to block the deal.

Made [...]


Outline:

(00:13) Converting to a for-profit model would undermine the companys founding mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity, argues new letter

(02:10) Nonprofit origins

(05:16) Nobel opposition

(06:32) Contradictions

(09:18) Justifications

(12:22) No sale price can compensate

(13:55) An institutional test

(15:42) Appendix: Quotes from OpenAI's leaders over the years


First published: April 23rd, 2025

Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rN8tHAJnRYgN7hfoF/openai-alums-nobel-laureates-urge-regulators-to-save-company)

    ---
    

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO).


Images from the article: Nobel Prize 2024 announcement panel at Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.)A comparison table showing governance safeguards under current and proposed restructuring.) Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts), or another podcast app.