Wealthy tech entrepreneurs including Elon Musk launched OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab that they said would involve society and the public in the development of powerful AI, unlike Google and other giant tech companies working behind closed doors. In line with that spirit, OpenAI’s reports to US tax authorities have from its founding said that any member of the public can review copies of its governing documents, financial statements, and conflict of interest rules.
But when WIRED requested those records last month, OpenAI said its policy had changed, and the company provided only a narrow financial statement that omitted the majority of its operations.
“We provide financial statements when requested,” company spokesperson Niko Felix says. “OpenAI aligns our practices with industry standards, and since 2022 that includes not publicly distributing additional internal documents.”
OpenAI’s abandonment of the long-standing transparency pledge obscures information that could shed light on the recent near-implosion of a company with crucial influence over the future of AI and could help outsiders understand its vulnerabilities. In November, OpenAI’s board fired CEO Sam Altman, implying in a statement that he was untrustworthy and had endangered its mission to ensure AI “benefits all humanity.” An employee and investor revolt soon forced the board to reinstate Altman and eject most of its own members, with an overhauled slate of directors vowing to review the crisis and enact structural changes to win back the trust of stakeholders.
Access to OpenAI’s conflict-of-interest policy could show what power the new board really has over Altman and his outside pursuits, which include personal investments in numerous startups pursuing AI projects and a nuclear reactor maker. His day job and personal projects intermingling played some role in board members’ distrust, according to people involved in the situation but not authorized to discuss it. In 2019, while Altman was at the helm, OpenAI signed a nonbinding letter of intent to buy $51 million of AI chips from Rain, a startup in which he has invested more than $1 million, WIRED reported last month. OpenAI hasn’t moved forward with a purchase. Felix says Altman is transparent with the board about his investments and follows a process for managing potential conflicts.
Some sunlight on OpenAI’s governing documents could reveal whether it has made revisions to stabilize an unusual corporate structure and potentially pacify backers such as Microsoft. The company’s founding bylaws, publicly available via its 2016 application to the Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt status, indicate how a fraction of the board could take control and push out Altman. OpenAI’s filings to the IRS through 2022 reported that no “significant changes” had ever been made to its governing documents. But the company almost certainly made updates after Altman’s return to allow it to give a nonvoting seat on the nonprofit board to Microsoft, whose CEO, Satya Nadella, complained publicly that he had been blindsided by Altman’s firing. Any additional changes made at that time remain a secret.