Latest news with #TheOpenAIFiles
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Express Tribune
14 hours ago
- Business
- Express Tribune
Elon Musk reignites feud with Sam Altman after OpenAI controversy surfaces
Elon Musk has once again directed public criticism toward OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, calling him 'Scam Altman' in a recent post on the social media platform X. The comment came shortly after the release of The OpenAI Files, a report raising concerns about OpenAI's governance, profit model, and safety practices. Musk framed his remark as a reaction to the revelations outlined in the report. Musk and Altman, both prominent figures in the tech and artificial intelligence sectors, share a history as co-founders of OpenAI. Musk served on OpenAI's board from its founding in 2015 until stepping down in 2018. He has since criticized the company's evolution from a non-profit research lab to a 'capped-profit' model, arguing that the move contradicts OpenAI's original mission of promoting safe and open AI development. In addition to their involvement in AI, both Musk and Altman have been vocal supporters of cryptocurrency, adding another dimension to their public personas and influence in the tech world. Musk, who leads Tesla, SpaceX, and X, has long promoted digital assets such as Bitcoin and Dogecoin. Tesla holds over $1 billion in Bitcoin, and Musk's public endorsements of Dogecoin have often impacted its market price. Altman, similarly, has expressed support for Bitcoin, describing it as a critical technological step during a 2023 appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience. He also launched the cryptocurrency Worldcoin in 2019, with a focus on decentralized identity and finance. Musk's recent criticism comes amid broader industry debates over the future of artificial intelligence. Centralized models, like those used by OpenAI, have been criticized for concentrating power and limiting transparency. Decentralized alternatives, often supported by crypto infrastructure, are being explored as a counterbalance.
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Express Tribune
15 hours ago
- Business
- Express Tribune
OpenAI files reveal profit shift, leadership concerns, and safety failures in nonprofit AI organization
A new investigative report titled The OpenAI Files, released by non-profit watchdogs The Midas Project and The Tech Oversight Project, reveals troubling insights into OpenAI's internal operations, leadership, and shifting priorities. The report, based on a year-long investigation, provides detailed documentation on how the organization's structure and goals have evolved since its founding in 2015. Founded to democratize artificial intelligence research and prevent misuse, OpenAI began as a non-profit organization. However, despite this designation, it has developed a widely used paid product, ChatGPT, and has maintained a hybrid structure involving a for-profit subsidiary. In late 2024, OpenAI announced plans to shift toward full commercialization. The move faced significant backlash from co-founder Elon Musk, former employees, civil society groups, and competitors like Meta, leading to a reversal in May 2025 and a recommitment to non-profit governance. The watchdog report outlines four core areas of concern: organizational restructuring, leadership, transparency and safety, and conflicts of interest. It criticizes OpenAI for quietly altering its original investor profit cap—initially set at 100x return on investment. By 2023, it allowed annual increases of 20%, and by 2025, was reportedly considering removing the cap entirely. The groups argue that these changes contradict OpenAI's founding mission to ensure AGI (artificial general intelligence) benefits all of humanity. Concerns about CEO Sam Altman are also central to the report. Watchdog organizations cite past controversies involving Altman's alleged absenteeism, manipulative behavior, and staff resignations. Former senior OpenAI figures, including Dario Amodei and Ilya Sutskever, are said to have described his leadership style as abusive. Further, the report alleges that OpenAI failed to allocate promised resources to a dedicated AI safety team and instead pressured employees to meet product deadlines while discouraging internal criticism and whistleblowing. It also highlights the company's use of strict NDAs that threatened employees with the loss of vested stock if they spoke out. Additionally, several board members are reported to have financial interests in businesses that benefit from OpenAI's market position. CEO Altman has invested in multiple affiliated ventures, while Board Chair Brett Taylor and board member Adebayo Ogunlesi lead or fund companies that rely on OpenAI's technology. These ties, the watchdogs argue, may compromise the integrity of OpenAI's mission and decision-making.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The ‘OpenAI Files' push for oversight in the race to AGI
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said humanity is only years away from developing artificial general intelligence that could automate most human labor. If that's true, then humanity also deserves to understand and have a say in the people and mechanics behind such an incredible and destabilizing force. That is the guiding purpose behind 'The OpenAI Files,' an archival project from the Midas Project and the Tech Oversight Project, two nonprofit tech watchdog organizations. The Files are a 'collection of documented concerns with governance practices, leadership integrity, and organizational culture at OpenAI.' Beyond raising awareness, the goal of the Files is to propose a path forward for OpenAI and other AI leaders that focuses on responsible governance, ethical leadership, and shared benefits. 'The governance structures and leadership integrity guiding a project as important as this must reflect the magnitude and severity of the mission,' reads the website's Vision for Change. 'The companies leading the race to AGI must be held to, and must hold themselves to, exceptionally high standards.' So far, the race to dominance in AI has resulted in raw scaling — a growth-at-all-costs mindset that has led companies like OpenAI to hoover up content without consent for training purposes and build massive data centers that are causing power outages and increasing electricity costs for local consumers. The rush to commercialize has also led companies to ship products before putting in necessary safeguards, as pressure from investors to turn a profit mounts. That investor pressure has shifted OpenAI's core structure. The OpenAI Files detail how, in its early nonprofit days, OpenAI had initially capped investor profits at a maximum of 100x so that any proceeds from achieving AGI would go to humanity. The company has since announced plans to remove that cap, admitting that it has made such changes to appease investors who made funding conditional on structural reforms. The Files highlight issues like OpenAI's rushed safety evaluation processes and 'culture of recklessness,' as well as the potential conflicts of interest of OpenAI's board members and Altman himself. They include a list of startups that might be in Altman's own investment portfolio that also have overlapping businesses with OpenAI. The Files also call into question Altman's integrity, which has been a topic of speculation since senior employees tried to oust him in 2023 over 'deceptive and chaotic behavior.' 'I don't think Sam is the guy who should have the finger on the button for AGI,' Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI's former chief scientist, reportedly said at the time. The questions and solutions raised by the OpenAI Files remind us that enormous power rests in the hands of a few, with little transparency and limited oversight. The Files provide a glimpse into that black box and aim to shift the conversation from inevitability to accountability. Sign in to access your portfolio
