OpenAI's big mission shift risks future

The nonprofit-turned-tech-giant OpenAI is facing unprecedented internal resistance as it attempts to restructure into a for-profit entity. An open letter titled "Not For Private Gain," signed by dozens of former OpenAI employees including prominent AI researchers, has emerged as a serious legal and ethical challenge to the company that created ChatGPT. The signatories are urging attorneys general in California and Delaware to block what they see as a fundamental betrayal of OpenAI's founding principles.

Key Points

• Foundational betrayal: OpenAI was explicitly created to ensure AGI benefits humanity "unconstrained by a need to generate financial return" – the proposed restructuring directly contradicts this mission by prioritizing financial obligations over societal benefit.

• Astronomical wealth transfer: AGI is projected to generate "unprecedented economic benefits" – potentially "the light cone of all future value." The letter argues this restructuring would redirect this wealth from humanity at large to a small group of private shareholders.

• Loss of public accountability: Converting from a nonprofit to a Public Benefit Corporation would remove crucial legal oversight by public officials and transfer enforcement power primarily to shareholders motivated by financial returns.

The Stakes Couldn't Be Higher

The most critical insight from this conflict is that we're witnessing the real-time privatization of what could be the most transformative technology in human history. OpenAI's own leadership, including CEO Sam Altman, has repeatedly acknowledged that AGI will bring "serious risks of misuse, drastic accidents, and societal disruption." Altman himself signed a statement saying mitigating extinction risk from AI should be a "global priority" alongside pandemics and nuclear war.

This isn't simply corporate restructuring – it's a fundamental question about who will control and benefit from technology that could reshape civilization. The original cap-profit structure was specifically designed as a safeguard to prevent concentration of this unprecedented power. By dismantling these guardrails less than two years after Altman testified to Congress about their importance, OpenAI is signaling that investor demands now outweigh the safety commitments that defined its creation.

Looking Beyond the Letter

What's particularly striking is how this situation mirrors similar ethical transitions throughout tech history. Facebook's evolution from "connecting people" to a