Elon Musk recently tried an unsolicited takeover of OpenAi that was rejected by CEO Sam Altman and OpenAi’s Nonfofit Bord.
Now the creator of Chatgpt is said to ensure that all future coups of the world’s richest man – or another investor – will not be successful.
According to a report in the financial timeThe discussed changes would give the existing non-profit directors of OpenAI special voting rights, so that they can retain the power over OpenAI, even while the artificial intelligence organization restructures in a profit motive that is known as a public of the public.
By concentrating such a power in the non -profitar of OpenAi, the AI -tail could refute the argument of Musk that it has left its original charity mission. It can also enable board members to ignore other backers of the profit motive, such as Microsoft (MSFT) or Softbank.
All that will maneuver a little by the board members of OpenAi and Altman, who are all defendants in a lawsuit of Musk who tries to block OpenAi from converting to a profit.
“There are strategic decisions that can be made to protect a non-profit against a hostile takeover or coup d’etat,” wrote non-profit law expert Ellis Carter in her Charit Blog. But making the non -profit “really ignorable”, Carter explained, must be done carefully.
Because non -profit organizations have no shares and no formal ownership, she added: “Governance design is crucial.”
For now, the OpenAI board is authorized to ward off acquisitions, because it has no shareholders and no voting members entitled to vote as a non-profit. But University of California, Los Angeles Law Professor Rose Chan Loui Said OpenAi seems to be focused on strengthening a hostile takeover that could come after the conversion of the profitable subsidiary to a general interest company.
Chan Loui suspects that OpenAi would give his board members a special class voice shares in the restructured for-profit company with rights that are superior to other stock owners. At least, she said, their voices can cancel out all takeover movements by private investors, including the largest investor of OpenAi, Microsoft.
Furthermore, she said, it is unclear how specific the voting rights can be. For example, they can be limited to rejecting takeover attempts or so wide as the all-embracing rights that are currently being held by the non-profit organization.
“We need more detail,” said Chan Loui.
OpenAi did not respond to a request for clarification.