[LINK] ChatGPT/OpenAi - non-profit altruism versus commercialism

Jan Whitaker jwhit at internode.on.net
Wed Nov 22 08:27:49 AEDT 2023


I don't know how they square this circle. OpenAI was established under 
the same/similar concepts as Open Source initiative - non-commercial. 
But then they got so much money, they had to (I guess?) set up a 
commercial subsidiary. I would think of this similar to a 'commercial' 
arm to a uni here, or any other non-profit that uses the earned income 
to put back into the operation of the business and NOT distribute to 
'investors' (they don't have shareholders I don't think, but they do 
have investors - e.g. Microsoft and others). The investors are 
supposedly supporting the original concept of the non-profit to develop 
and distribute these tools.

To be true to their charter, the board would need to stay altruistic, 
NOT commercial. And that's where they get into a dilemma with where 
Altman and Microsoft appear to be going - profit. Those are two nearly 
opposite philosophies.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/21/microsoft-ceo-nadella-openai-altman

No one has talked about this: who owns the IP? That will likely be 
fought out in court at some point.

Does anyone know the answer to this question?

Jan



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