OpenAI Gets Conspiracy-Brained, Sues Nonprofits

Sam Altman and Elon Musk have been locked in an ongoing standoff over the fact that OpenAI has operated like a for-profit business despite its nonprofit status. The fight, which has been ongoing in the court of public opinion for years and in the actual courts for months, is starting to rack up collateral damage. According to a report from the San Francisco Standard, critics of OpenAI have started receiving subpoenas from the AI firm over what the company’s leadership seems to believe is a conspiracy backed by Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

There is no doubt that a lot of money is being thrown around in the AI space. But OpenAI apparently thinks it’s ultimately all about its own success. According to the Standard, OpenAI has requested documents from nonprofits and researchers, demanding they turn over documents related to Musk and Meta. In the case of one Nathan Calvin, the general counsel for an AI governance nonprofit called Encode, those documents don’t exist, per the Standard.

Calvin isn’t the only one to get the demand to turn over documents, either. The report indicates that at least two other AI governance groups have received similar requests. And it appears the seeming paranoia at OpenAI has extended beyond just the pages of the subpoenas. Apparently, on a call with nonprofit groups that opposed the company’s attempts to restructure and shed its nonprofit status, a representative for OpenAI suggested the groups were “funded by our competitors,” and asked that they “reveal themselves.”

Some of OpenAI’s targets seem to be the kinds of people who would only raise suspicion if you were following a red string across a corkboard. For instance, according to the Standard, the company has subpoenaed the founder of the Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit that focuses on the use of AI in the criminal justice system and was started by a high schooler. They’ve also sent requests to Jeffrey Gardner, an LSAT instructor who lives in New York, who lives in a home owned by a company called Tesla Place, LLC. OpenAI called him a “prop” being used to “hide the true identity” of one of its opponents. Gardner told the Standard that the company is named after the street he used to live on and has no ties to Elon Musk.

OpenAI seems sure that the world is out to get it. And it may be right to some degree. But it’s a little difficult to try to claim the underdog story when you’re valued at $500 billion. Is it possible that the worst people in tech are paying nonprofits to be critical of OpenAI? Sure. But plenty of people take shots at Sam Altman’s baby, free of charge.

Regardless, it’s clear Altman and Musk aren’t really worried about burning or at least inconveniencing people along the way as they settle their feud. Just last week, Musk’s company, xAI, sued a former engineer who jumped ship to OpenAI, claiming they took company secrets with them. Anything to win, no matter who gets caught in the crossfire.