Elon Musk has recently received new support in his legal battle against OpenAI. That is Geoffrey Hinton, who is dubbed the “godfather” of AI.
“OpenAI was founded as a non-profit organization focused on safety and has made numerous commitments related to safety in its charter,” said Hinton in a statement released by the Encode organization.
He emphasized: “This organization receives many tax incentives and other benefits because it is a non-profit company. Allowing them to abandon all of that when it becomes inconvenient will send a very bad message to other parties in the AI ecosystem.”
Geoffrey Hinton, the 2024 Nobel Prize winner in Physics, is known for his research on neural networks. He worked for more than a decade at Google before leaving in May 2023.
OpenAI, founded in 2015 as a non-profit research organization, is now gradually transitioning into a for-profit company. Hinton's comments come as Elon Musk—one of the co-founders of OpenAI alongside Sam Altman but who left the board in 2018—is trying to prevent this transition.
Last month, Musk's legal team filed a request with the court to prevent OpenAI from becoming a for-profit organization. A spokesperson for OpenAI stated that Musk's latest move is “completely baseless.”
It is known that Encode, an organization advocating for human-centered AI, recently also submitted a legal document to support Elon Musk in the lawsuit against OpenAI.
Adam Billen, Vice President of Public Policy at Encode, stated: “Since its inception, OpenAI's mission has been to keep its technology under the control of a responsible non-profit organization.”
He added: “The decision to abandon that mission in pursuit of profit shows why public involvement is essential in shaping the future of this transformative technology.”
The legal battle between Musk and OpenAI
In February, billionaire Elon Musk sued OpenAI, accusing the company of violating its non-profit mission by collaborating with Microsoft.
He withdrew his lawsuit in June but refiled it in August. Musk's legal team claims that OpenAI's leadership “deceived” him during the company's formation, exploiting his concerns about the existing risks from AI.
Additionally, this is not the first time 'AI godfather' Hinton has criticized OpenAI. At a press conference in October, Hinton said that CEO Sam Altman is “less concerned about safety than profit” and called it a “regrettable” situation.
Meanwhile, in October, OpenAI successfully raised $6.6 billion in investment capital, achieving a valuation of $157 billion.
According to Business Insider