[dupe] more discussion:
OpenAI to become for-profit company
201–210 of 809 posts
Re: OpenAI to become for-profit company
#202Given what Sam has done by clearing out every single person who went against him in the initial coup and completely gutting every safety related team the entire world should be on notice. If you believe what Sam Altman himself and many other researchers are saying, that AGI and ASI may well be within reach inside this decade, then every possible alarm bell should be blaring. Sam cannot be allowed to be in control of…
I don't know why anyone would believe anything this guy is saying, though, especially now that we know he's going to receive a 7% stake in the now-for-profit company.
There are two main interpretations of what he's saying:
1) He sincerely believes that AGI is around the corner.
2) He sees that his research team is hitting a plateau of what is possible and is prepping for a very successful exit before the rest of the world notices the plateau.
Given his track record of honesty and the financial incentives involved, I know which interpretation I lean towards.
Re: OpenAI to become for-profit company
#203Converting to a for-profit changes the tax status of donations. It also voids plausibility for Fair Use exemptions. I can see large copyright holders lining up with takedowns demanding they revise their originating datasets since there will now be a clear-cut commercial use without license.
> It also voids plausibility for Fair Use exemptions. I can see large copyright holders lining up with takedowns
I thought so for a moment but then again Meta, Anthropic (I just checked and they have a "for profit and public benefit" status whatever that means), Google or that Musk's thing aren't non-profits, are they ? There are lawsuits in motion for sure but with how it stands today I think ai gets off the hook.
Re: OpenAI to become for-profit company
#204Then why keep the name OpenAI?
It's a widely known brand, even by people outside of the industry. Why would they change it? Their AI was never really open to begin with, so nothing really change on that front
Re: OpenAI to become for-profit company
#205I know nothing about companies (esp. in the US), but I find it weird that a company can go from non-profit to for-profit? Surely this would be taken advantage of. Can someone explain me how this work?
That was the point musk was complaining about. In practice it’s doable though. You can just create a new legal entity and move stuff and/or do future value creating activity in the new co. IF everyone is on board with the plan on both sides of the move then that’s totally doable with enough lawyers and accountants
But, if the non-profit gives all its assets to the new legal entity, shouldn't the new legal entity be taxed heavily? The gift tax rate goes up to 40% in the US. And 40% of the value of openAI is huge.
Re: OpenAI to become for-profit company
#206Given what Sam has done by clearing out every single person who went against him in the initial coup and completely gutting every safety related team the entire world should be on notice. If you believe what Sam Altman himself and many other researchers are saying, that AGI and ASI may well be within reach inside this decade, then every possible alarm bell should be blaring. Sam cannot be allowed to be in control of…
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Re: OpenAI to become for-profit company
#207The most surprising thing to me in this is that the non-profit will still exist. Not sure what the point of it is anymore. Taken as a whole, OpenAI is now just a for-profit entity beholden to investors and Sam Altman as a shareholder. The non-profit is really just vestigial. I guess technically it's supposed to play some role in making sure OpenAI "benefits humanity". But as we've seen multiple times, whenever that g…
> The most surprising thing to me in this is that the non-profit will still exist. Not sure what the point of it is anymore. As a moral fig leaf. They can always point to it when the press calls -- "see it is a non-profit".
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Re: OpenAI to become for-profit company
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
Scraping the entire internet for training data without regard for copyright or attribution - specifically to use for generative AI to produce similar content for profit. How this is being allowed to happen legally is baffling. It does suit the modus operandi of a number of American companies that start out as literally illegal/criminal operations until they get big and rich enough to pay a fine for their youthful mis…
The people running the show are well connected and stand to make billions as do would be investors. Give a few key players a share in the company and they forget their government jobs to regulate.
More likely the legal system just hasn’t caught up.
Re: OpenAI to become for-profit company
#209I know nothing about companies (esp. in the US), but I find it weird that a company can go from non-profit to for-profit? Surely this would be taken advantage of. Can someone explain me how this work?
It's not weird, it's illegal.
There's a lot of jurisdiction around preventing this sort of abuse of the non-profit concept.
The reason why the people involved are not on trial right now is a bit of a mystery to me, but could be a combination of:
* Still too soon, all of this really took shape in the past year or two.
* Only Musk has sued them, so far, and that happened last month.
* There's some favoritism from the government to the leading AI company in the world.
* There's some favoritism from the government to a big company from YC and Sam Altman.
I do believe Musk's lawsuit will go through. The last two points are worth less and less with time as AI is being commoditized. Dismantling OpenAI is actually a business strategy for many other players now. This is not good for OpenAI.
Re: OpenAI to become for-profit company
#210Good, I would do the same because it's a reasonable thing to do. It's easier to succeed as a for-profit.
Succeed off of lies and deceit to gain goodwill from workers and governments.