April 24, 2011 - Technology media outlet The Decoder published a blog post yesterday (April 23) reporting that former OpenAI Staff, researchers andNon-profit organizationsJointly issued an open letter.call strongly forsupervisoryThe agency blocked OpenAI's proposed corporate reorganization plan.
Founded in 2015, OpenAI began as a nonprofit organization to ensure that general-purpose artificial intelligence (AGI) development was aligned with the public interest. The company established a for-profit subsidiary, OpenAI LP, in 2019 in order to raise capital, but it remains under the oversight of the nonprofit entity. Now, a proposed reorganization plan transfers operational control to a new Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), with the nonprofit entity acting only as a shareholder and losing governance.
The latest joint open letter states thatThis shift would abolish key mechanisms such as profit limitations, an independent board of directors, and the vesting of AGI technology in a not-for-profit entity, a serious departure from OpenAI's corporate mission.
The letter further criticizes the lack of transparency in OpenAI's reorganization, questioning who controls the AGI technology under the new corporate structure, in addition to concerns that Microsoft (OpenAI's largest investor) will gain access.
In addition, OpenAI's stop-and-assist clause (supporting other secure AGI projects until AGI is realized) may no longer be binding. The authors warn that this reorganization will benefit shareholders at the expense of the public interest, affecting how AGI is developed, how earnings are distributed, and where ultimate control resides.
The letter emphasizes that OpenAI's nonprofit structure is not a symbolic presence, but rather a legally binding mechanism to ensure that the mission takes precedence. The signatories urge the Attorneys General of California and Delaware to investigate this reorganization plan and protect existing governance safeguards.
The open letter also rebuts OpenAI's rhetoric about simplifying its capital structure to remain competitive, arguing that the current structure is exactly what is needed to ensure that public well-being is prioritized, not the problem.
An open letter currently signed by prominent AI researchers including Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton, AI ethics researcher Margaret Mitchell and computer scientist Stuart Russell.
1AI checked the publicly available information and Jeffrey Hinton is known as "Godfather of AI" and "originator of deep learning", known for his contributions to neural network-like
Hinton is one of the inventors of the backpropagation algorithm and the contrast scattering algorithm, as well as an active promoter of deep learning, and is known as the "godfather of deep learning". Hinton was awarded the 2018 Turing Award for his contributions to deep learning, along with Joshua Bencio and Li-Kun Yang.