OpenAI is a nonprofit after all
Elon asked a good question about the OpenAI nonprofit→profit arc.
I'm still confused as to how a non-profit to which I donated ~$100M somehow became a $30B market cap for-profit. If this is legal, why doesn't everyone do it? — Elon Musk
Answer: OpenAI never became a for-profit company. A for-profit company does not kick out its founder/CEO who generated hundreds of billions in shareholder value. A for-profit company definitely does not kick out its leadership for the crime of moving too fast, creating too much value.
This radical action by the nonprofit board is a truer signal than any other. You shall know them by their fruits!
OpenAI is not controlled by Microsoft
A frequent refrain as of late — OpenAI and Microsoft should be understood as the same organization. Satya is the real puppet master, etc.
This notion was never in keeping with the actual legal ownership structure of OpenAI!
In fairness, many of us assumed that the board was a lame duck, and that the real control, the real future lay with the for-profit entity. The nonprofit structure was archaic, vestigial. Not unreasonable, I believed this too — but as it happens, wrong.
This was a power move, not a money move
Money move = something in the interest of the shareholders, positive sum
Power move = something in the interest of a faction, negative sum
There’s no doubt that this move destroyed shareholder value. There’s no doubt that this move established beyond doubt who actually holds the power. Signaling absolute control may even have been the sole reason for the decision!
The ruling council felt threatened by the meteoric rise of a young charismatic leader with broad popular support— so they conspired against him and knifed him on the floor of the senate. Maybe they were right to do this! But their victory will be short-lived.
Clarity is good
If you’re confused about who your boss is, you’re much less likely to be successful in your role.
Sama thought he was the boss, as did the rest of us. But as it happens, the nonprofit is in control. Better to learn this sooner rather than later.
Two big winners: Anthropic, Elon
Talented OpenAI researchers migrate to Anthropic, arguably the true successor to Sama’s OpenAI, without the nonprofit fatal flaw — refugees for OpenAI will be welcomed by their friends and former colleagues at Anthropic.
Anthropic, despite its EA connections, is ideologically closer to e/acc than the conspirators who decapitated Sama. Anthropic is solving interpretability and alignment. There is nothing more e/acc than destroying the very foundation of the decel arguments. In Anthropic, I see another Professor Snape e/acc sleeper cell!
Big Tech companies will not be successful in scooping up the remnants of OpenAI. OpenAI refugees will want to work somewhere dynamic, hungry, founder-led.
Aside from Anthropic, the two most dynamic AI companies today are xAI and Tesla. I expect these will also scoop up some talent.
The biggest winner: e/acc
This event is hugely vindicating for the e/acc movement. This was a naked conspiracy by Decels. They are doing exactly as Beff said they would — shooting down the acceleration because they are afraid, and because they are power-hungry vampires who increase their sense of self-importance by the magnitude of that which they destroy.
While Anthropic may serve as a corporate refugee camp for OpenAI talent, the e/acc movement will serve as the ideological refugee camp. We welcome Sama and Greg, and all who paid the price of acceleration, to our movement, with open arms — and take comfort knowing that any competing AI companies they start will directly amplify the acceleration.
Traffic for e/acc wiki (an emerging real-time barometer of interest in the movement) shot up on the news.
The movement is growing very powerfully, it cannot be stopped. We control our truth through e/acc wiki. We control our technology through open-source models. We control the narrative through asymmetric memetic warfare. And we will control the lightcone too, through relentless acceleration of technology.
e/acc has not yet won the culture wars as roon famously opined, but we are winning. We will win! CERTAIN VICTORY!