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A group of ex-OpenAI employees on Friday filed a proposed amicus brief<\/a> in support of Elon Musk in his lawsuit against OpenAI, opposing OpenAI\u2019s planned conversion from a nonprofit to a for-profit corporation.<\/p>\n The brief, filed by Harvard law professor and Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig, names 12 former OpenAI employees: Steven Adler, Rosemary Campbell, Neil Chowdhury, Jacob Hilton, Daniel Kokotajlo, Gretchen Krueger, Todor Markov, Richard Ngo, Girish Sastry, William Saunders, Carrol Wainwright, and Jeffrey Wu. It makes the case that, if OpenAI\u2019s non-profit ceded control of the organization\u2019s business operations, it would \u201cfundamentally violate its mission.\u201d<\/p>\n Several of the ex-staffers have spoken out against OpenAI\u2019s practices publicly before. Krueger\u00a0has called on the company<\/a>\u00a0to improve its accountability and transparency, while Kokotajlo and Saunders previously warned that OpenAI is in a\u00a0\u201creckless\u201d race for AI dominance<\/a>. Wainwright has said<\/a> that OpenAI \u201cshould not [be trusted] when it promises to do the right thing later.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement, an OpenAI spokesperson said that OpenAI\u2019s nonprofit \u201cisn\u2019t going anywhere\u201d and that the organization\u2019s mission \u201cwill remain the same.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur board has been very clear,\u201d the spokesperson told TechCrunch via email. \u201cWe\u2019re turning our existing for-profit arm into a public benefit corporation (PBC) \u2014 the same structure as other AI labs like Anthropic \u2014 where some of these former employees now work \u2014 and [Musk\u2019s AI startup] xAI.\u201d<\/p>\n OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit in 2015, but it converted to a \u201ccapped-profit\u201d in 2019, and is now trying to restructure once more into a PBC. When it transitioned to a capped-profit, OpenAI retained its nonprofit wing, which currently has a controlling stake in the organization\u2019s corporate arm.<\/p>\n Musk\u2019s suit against OpenAI accuses the startup of abandoning its nonprofit mission, which aimed to ensure its AI research benefits all humanity. Musk had sought a preliminary injunction to\u00a0halt OpenAI\u2019s conversion<\/a>. A federal judge\u00a0denied the request<\/a>, but permitted the case to go to a jury trial in spring 2026.<\/p>\n According to the ex-OpenAI employees\u2019 brief, OpenAI\u2019s present structure \u2014 a nonprofit controlling a group of other subsidiaries \u2014 is a \u201ccrucial part\u201d of its overall strategy and \u201ccritical\u201d to the organization\u2019s mission. Restructuring that removes the nonprofit\u2019s controlling role would not only contradict OpenAI\u2019s mission and charter commitments, but would also \u201cbreach the trust of employees, donors, and other stakeholders who joined and supported the organization based on these commitments,\u201d asserts the brief.<\/p>\n \u201cOpenAI committed to several key principles for executing on [its] mission in their charter document,\u201d the brief reads. \u201cThese commitments were taken extremely seriously within the company and were repeatedly communicated and treated internally as being binding. The court should recognize that maintaining the nonprofit\u2019s governance is essential to preserving OpenAI\u2019s unique structure, which was designed to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits humanity rather than serving narrow financial interests.\u201d <\/p>\n Artificial general intelligence, or AGI, is broadly understood to mean AI that can complete any task a human can.<\/p>\n According to the brief, OpenAI often used its structure as a recruitment tool \u2014 and repeatedly assured staff that the nonprofit control was \u201ccritical\u201d in executing its mission. The brief recounts an OpenAI all-hands meeting toward the end of 2020 during which OpenAI CEO Sam Altman allegedly stressed that the nonprofits\u2019 governance and oversight were \u201cparamount\u201d in \u201cguaranteeing that safety and broad societal benefits were prioritized over short-term financial gains.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn recruiting conversations with candidates, it was common to cite OpenAI\u2019s unique governance structure as a critical differentiating factor between OpenAI and competitors such as Google or Anthropic and an important reason they should consider joining the company,\u201d reads the brief. \u201cThis same reason was also often used to persuade employees who were considering leaving for competitors to stay at OpenAI \u2014 including some of us.\u201d<\/p>\n The brief warns that, should OpenAI be allowed to convert to a for-profit, it might be incentivized to \u201c[cut] corners\u201d on safety work and develop powerful AI \u201cconcentrated among its shareholders.\u201d A for-profit OpenAI would have little reason to abide by the \u201cmerge and assist\u201d clause in OpenAI\u2019s current charter, which pledges that OpenAI will stop competing with and assist any \u201cvalue-aligned, safety-conscious\u201d project that achieves AGI before it does, asserts the brief. <\/p>\n The ex-OpenAI employees, some of whom were research and policy leaders at the company, join a growing cohort voicing strong opposition to OpenAI\u2019s transition. <\/p>\n Earlier this week, a group of organizations, including nonprofits and labor groups like the California Teamsters, petitioned California Attorney General Rob Bonta to stop OpenAI from becoming a for-profit. They claimed the company has \u201cfailed to protect its charitable assets\u201d and is actively \u201csubverting its charitable mission to advance safe artificial intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n Encode, a nonprofit organization that co-sponsored California\u2019s\u00a0ill-fated<\/a>\u00a0SB 1047<\/a>\u00a0AI safety legislation,\u00a0cited similar concerns in an amicus brief<\/a>\u00a0filed in December.<\/p>\n OpenAI has said that its conversion\u00a0would preserve its nonprofit arm<\/a>\u00a0and infuse it with resources to be spent on \u201ccharitable initiatives\u201d in sectors such as healthcare, education, and science. In exchange for its controlling stake in OpenAI\u2019s enterprise, the nonprofit would reportedly stand to reap billions of dollars<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re actually getting ready to build the best-equipped nonprofit the world has ever seen \u2014 we\u2019re not converting it away,\u201d the company\u00a0wrote in a series of posts on X<\/a>\u00a0on Wednesday.<\/p>\n The stakes are high for OpenAI, which needs to complete its for-profit conversion by the end of this year or next or\u00a0risk relinquishing some of the capital\u00a0it has raised in recent months, according to<\/a> reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n