The non-profit group is joining Elon Musk’s efforts to block the for-profit reform of OpenAI

Encode, a non-profit organization that supports California bad Cost of SB1047 The AI ​​Defense Law, has requested permission to file an amicus brief in support of Elon Musk’s the law halting OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit company.

In a in short filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday afternoon, Encode’s judge said that turning OpenAI into a profit would “interfere” with the company’s mission “to create and deliver … to the public.”

“OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, claim to be developing technology that will transform humanity, and these claims should be taken seriously,” the brief read. “If the world is really at the peak of a new era Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)that is, there is a strong public interest in technology being run by a legally mandated charity that promotes the safety and benefit of society rather than focusing on the return of money to a privileged few. “

OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit research lab. But as his experiment grew, it grew was created its current structure, taking foreign investment from VCs and companies, including Microsoft.

Today, OpenAI has a hybrid form: a for-profit side run by non-profits and a “profit” side for investors and employees. But in a blog post This morning, the company said it plans to transform its current for-profit status into a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), with common shares and An OpenAI project such as public interest.

OpenAI’s non-profit will remain but will lose control in exchange for shares in the PBC.

Musk, an early contributor to the original nonprofit, filed a lawsuit in November seeking an injunction to block the change, which has been in the works for some time. He criticized OpenAI for abandoning its philanthropic mission to make the fruits of its AI research available to all, and for robbing its competitors of funding — including its own AI startup, xAI — through anti-competitive practices.

OpenAI has to be invited Musk’s complaints are “baseless” and a case of sour grapes.

Facebook’s parent company and AI partner, Meta, is also supporting efforts to stop OpenAI’s conversion. In December, Meta sending In a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, he argued that allowing the change would have “disruptive effects on Silicon Valley.”

Encode’s lawyers said OpenAI’s plans to transfer its services to the PBC “will change the statutory body to ensure the protection of advanced AI to a legal one that ‘maintains’ the consideration of any benefit to society against ‘financial. interests of shareholders.'”

The Encode Guide notes briefly, for example, that the non-profit organization OpenAI has committed to stop competing with “a cost-effective, safety-conscious project” that approaches building AGI before it does, but OpenAI as a for-profit would have. little (if any) incentive to do so. The summary also indicates that the non-profit organization OpenAI will no longer be able to withhold investors’ money if needed to secure it after the company’s reorganization is completed.

OpenAI continues to meet and to go out about super talent Another reason for concern is that the company prioritizes commercial products at the expense of safety. One former employee, Miles Brundage, a longtime researcher who left OpenAI in October, said mailing list on X that he worries that the non-profit OpenAI will become a “side hustle” that gives the PBC permission to operate as a “normal company” without addressing potentially critical areas.

“OpenAI’s fiduciary duty to the public may end, as Delaware law makes it clear that PBC administrators have no fiduciary duty to the public,” Encode’s brief continued. “The public’s interest can be harmed by a focus on security, a non-profit, non-profit, abandoning control of the changing environment at any cost to a profit-making enterprise without a commitment to security.”

Encode, founded in July 2020 by high school student Sneha Revanur, describes itself as a group of volunteers focused on ensuring that the voices of younger generations are heard in the AI ​​conversation. Encode has supported various pieces of AI state and federal legislation including SB 1047, including the White House. AI Bill of Rights and President Joe Biden AI system.

TechCrunch has a newsletter focused on AI! Log in here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday.