SAN FRANCISCO: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced Monday that the company behind ChatGPT will continue to be run as a nonprofit, abandoning a contested plan to convert into a for-profit organization.
The structural issue had become a significant point of contention for the artificial intelligence (AI) pioneer, with major investors pushing for the change to better secure their returns.
AI safety advocates had expressed concerns about pursuing substantial profits from such powerful technology without the oversight of a nonprofit board of directors acting in society’s interest rather than for shareholder profits.
“OpenAI is not a normal company and never will be,” Altman wrote in an email to staff posted on the company’s website.
“We made the decision for the nonprofit to stay in control after hearing from civic leaders and having discussions with the offices of the Attorneys General of California and Delaware,” he added.
OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit in 2015 and later created a “capped” for-profit entity allowing limited profit-making to attract investors, with cloud computing giant Microsoft becoming the largest early backer.
This arrangement nearly collapsed in 2023 when the board unexpectedly fired Altman. Staff revolted, leading to Altman’s reinstatement while those responsible for his dismissal departed.
Alarmed by the instability, investors demanded OpenAI transition to a more traditional for-profit structure within two years.
Under its initial reform plan revealed last year, OpenAI would have become an outright for-profit public benefit corporation (PBC), reassuring investors considering the tens of billions of dollars necessary to fulfill the company’s ambitions.
Any status change, however, requires approval from state governments in California and Delaware, where the company is headquartered and registered, respectively.
The plan faced strong criticism from AI safety activists and co-founder Elon Musk, who sued the company he left in 2018, claiming the proposal violated its founding philosophy.
In the revised plan, OpenAI’s money-making arm will now be fully open to generate profits but, crucially, will remain under the nonprofit board’s supervision.
“We believe this sets us up to continue to make rapid, safe progress and to put great AI in the hands of everyone,” Altman said.
OpenAI’s major investors will likely have a say in this proposal, with Japanese investment giant SoftBank having made the change to being a for-profit a condition for their massive $30 billion investment announced on March 31.
In an official document, SoftBank stated its total investment could be reduced to $20 billion if OpenAI does not restructure into a for-profit entity by year-end.
The substantial cash injections are needed to cover OpenAI’s colossal computing requirements to build increasingly energy-intensive and complex AI models.
The company’s original vision did not contemplate “the needs for hundreds of billions of dollars of compute to train models and serve users,” Altman said.
SoftBank’s contribution in March represented the majority of the $40 billion raised in a funding round that valued the ChatGPT maker at $300 billion, marking the largest capital-raising event ever for a startup.
The company, led by Altman, has become one of Silicon Valley’s most successful startups, propelled to prominence in 2022 with the release of ChatGPT, its generative AI chatbot.
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OpenAI abandons plan to become for-profit company
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OpenAI abandons plan to become for-profit company
Pakistan combing for perpetrators after deadly separatist attacks
- Around a dozen sites where the attacks took place — including the provincial capital Quetta — remained sealed off
- The Baloch Liberation Army, the province’s most active militant separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attacks
QUETTA, Pakistan: Pakistan forces were hunting on Sunday for the separatists behind a string of coordinated attacks in restive Balochistan province, with the government vowing to retaliate after more than 120 people were killed.
Around a dozen sites where the attacks took place — including the provincial capital Quetta — remained sealed off, with troops combing the area a day after militants stormed banks, jails and military installations, killing at least 18 civilians and 15 security personnel, according to the military’s count.
At least 92 militants were also killed, the military added, while an official said that a deputy district commissioner had been abducted.
Mobile Internet service across the province has been jammed for more than 24 hours, while road traffic is disrupted and train services suspended.
After being rocked by explosions, typically bustling Quetta lay quiet on Sunday, with major roads and businesses deserted, and people staying indoors out of fear.
Shattered metal fragments and mangled vehicles litter some roads.
“Anyone who leaves home has no certainty of returning safe and sound. There is constant fear over whether they will come back unharmed,” Hamdullah, a 39-year-old shopkeeper who goes by one name, said in Quetta.
The Pakistan military said it was conducting “sanitization operations” in the areas that had been targeted in Saturday’s attacks.
“The instigators, perpetrators, facilitators and abettors of these heinous and cowardly act... will be brought to justice,” it said in a statement Saturday night.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the province’s most active militant separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement sent to AFP.
The group said it had targeted military installations as well as police and civil administration officials in gun attacks and suicide bombings.
Saturday’s attacks came a day after the military said it killed 41 insurgents in two separate operations in the province.
Pakistan has been battling a Baloch separatist insurgency for decades, with frequent armed attacks on security forces, foreign nationals and non-local Pakistanis in the mineral-rich province bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
Pakistan’s poorest province despite an abundance of untapped natural resources, Balochistan lags behind the rest of the country in almost every index, including education, employment and economic development.
Baloch separatists have intensified attacks on Pakistanis from other provinces working in the region in recent years, as well as foreign energy firms that they believe are exploiting its riches.
The separatists attacked a train with 450 passengers on board last year, sparking a two-day siege during which dozens of people were killed.
Around a dozen sites where the attacks took place — including the provincial capital Quetta — remained sealed off, with troops combing the area a day after militants stormed banks, jails and military installations, killing at least 18 civilians and 15 security personnel, according to the military’s count.
At least 92 militants were also killed, the military added, while an official said that a deputy district commissioner had been abducted.
Mobile Internet service across the province has been jammed for more than 24 hours, while road traffic is disrupted and train services suspended.
After being rocked by explosions, typically bustling Quetta lay quiet on Sunday, with major roads and businesses deserted, and people staying indoors out of fear.
Shattered metal fragments and mangled vehicles litter some roads.
“Anyone who leaves home has no certainty of returning safe and sound. There is constant fear over whether they will come back unharmed,” Hamdullah, a 39-year-old shopkeeper who goes by one name, said in Quetta.
The Pakistan military said it was conducting “sanitization operations” in the areas that had been targeted in Saturday’s attacks.
“The instigators, perpetrators, facilitators and abettors of these heinous and cowardly act... will be brought to justice,” it said in a statement Saturday night.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the province’s most active militant separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement sent to AFP.
The group said it had targeted military installations as well as police and civil administration officials in gun attacks and suicide bombings.
Saturday’s attacks came a day after the military said it killed 41 insurgents in two separate operations in the province.
Pakistan has been battling a Baloch separatist insurgency for decades, with frequent armed attacks on security forces, foreign nationals and non-local Pakistanis in the mineral-rich province bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
Pakistan’s poorest province despite an abundance of untapped natural resources, Balochistan lags behind the rest of the country in almost every index, including education, employment and economic development.
Baloch separatists have intensified attacks on Pakistanis from other provinces working in the region in recent years, as well as foreign energy firms that they believe are exploiting its riches.
The separatists attacked a train with 450 passengers on board last year, sparking a two-day siege during which dozens of people were killed.
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