OpenAI caves to pressure, keeps nonprofit in charge

OpenAI's contentious plan to overhaul its corporate structure in favor of a conventional for-profit model has been reworked, with the AI giant bowing to pressure to keep its nonprofit in control, even as it presses ahead with parts of the restructuring. OpenAI published a letter from CEO Sam Altman on Monday informing …

[lglethal]

Hmmm... Whose in charge of the existing non-profit Open AI? Mr Altman.

Whose trying to push through these changes? Mr Altman.

Who will be in charge of the non-profit after these changes come into effect, whilst also being a major shareholder of the for profit section? Mr Altman.

Nope, no conflicts of interest here at all.

To mangle Shakespeare - A Turd by any other name will smell as Shite...

[ComputerSays_noAbsolutelyNo]

Uncreative accountants

If it's only about extracting money, couldn't they just hired some creative accountants, and say, pay Open AI Tax Haven plc. a licence fee for every AI inference or so ... you know, to protect innovation in the IT sector of tax-free caribbean or channel islands

[Roj Blake]

Profit?

It's not as though OpenAI has ever or will ever make a profit, so this seems like a pointless debate.

[Philo T Farnsworth]

Re: Profit?

Beat me to it.

Though it might be cautionary to remember that a company called Amazon lost money for nearly two decades¹ and still seems to be around.

Go figure.

___________________

¹ Amazon: Nearly 20 Years In Business And It Still Doesn't Make Money, But Investors Don't Seem To Care

[lglethal]

Re: Profit?

Slight difference with Amazon, Amazon made a profit on all of those sales, however, it then invested ALL of that Profit (plus more hence why it lost money), in new Warehouses, better wesbites, Kindles, AWS, etc. i.e. things that allowed it to grow massively.

As a personal example, as much as I hate the very idea of such a large retailer having so much power, any time I've had a problem with Amazon, the Customer Service has been top notch! Most firms consider after sales service as a cost sink, and so do the absolute minimum. Amazon invested in that side of things, which leads to good results for the customers, and encourages people to come back and use their stores.

Another example, whilst Amazon didnt invent the e-reader, they invested heavily in that area, and basically grabbed the whole market from the start by combining in an easy to use way, the Kindle, and the Amazon libraries. No doubt even to this day, it earns them a sh&t ton of cash, but they had to invest a lot to develop the effective e-ink for the readers, sell the original ones at below cost, and do deals to convince the book companies to allow digital e-books. That would all have taken a lot of investment to get working. It paid off massively, but it required that initial investment.

That's why investors didnt mind Amazon, never making a "profit".

Open AI is making a loss on every sale, and it's not even selling low to get the customers hooked, it literally cant make a profit at any price that the market would be willing to pay. This is not reinvesting profits to get growth, this is burning investment cash in the hope that eventually it will earn something... It's almost the defintion of the South Park Underpants Gnomes...

Step 1 : Build AI

Step 2: ???

Step 3: Massive Profits...

No one seems to have an idea what Step 2 is going to be, but the status quo doesnt seem to be working...