OpenAI has been thoroughly exposed!

The report indicates that OpenAI is systematically and deliberately undergoing a fundamental shift from "serving the interests of humanity" to "serving the interests of investors." CEO Sam Altman has a long-standing, documented pattern of inconsistent behavior, manipulating information, and evading oversight, with a deep intertwining of personal investments and company operations. OpenAI exhibits inconsistencies in safety and transparency, with a serious disconnect between its public commitments and internal practices.

Written by: Zhao Ying

Source: Industry Observation

An interactive report of over 50 pages and more than 10,000 words reveals the entire process of how OpenAI evolved from a non-profit research lab to a profitable giant.

Recently, a deep investigative report titled "OpenAI Archives" was jointly released by two major non-profit technology oversight organizations—Midas Project and Tech Oversight Project.

The report is led by Tyler Johnston, Executive Director of the Midas Project, and involved nearly a year of public information gathering and one month of concentrated writing. The report is described as "the most comprehensive compilation to date of documented concerns regarding OpenAI's corporate governance practices, leadership integrity, and organizational culture."

By reviewing a large amount of publicly available information, including company disclosure documents, legal lawsuits, open letters, and media reports, this interactive report of over 10,000 words finds that OpenAI is systematically and deliberately completing a fundamental shift from "seeking the well-being of humanity" to "seeking profits for investors." CEO Sam Altman has a long-term, documented pattern of inconsistent statements and actions, manipulating information and evading oversight, as well as a deep entanglement of personal investments with the company's business. OpenAI's actions and statements regarding safety and transparency are inconsistent, with a serious disconnect between its public commitments and internal practices.

The report is divided into four main themes: first, restructuring; second, CEO integrity; third, transparency and security; fourth, conflicts of interest.

Notably, the extent to which OpenAI executives and board members benefit directly or indirectly from the company's success is concerning. This includes an analysis of CEO Sam Altman's investment portfolio, which involves several companies that have a partnership with OpenAI, such as Retro Biosciences, Helion Energy, Reddit, and Stripe.

Restructuring: A Well-Planned "Mission Betrayal"

The report points out that OpenAI is systematically and premeditatedly dismantling the core ethical and structural pillars established at its founding, and there is a serious contradiction between its actions and public statements, essentially representing a fundamental shift from "serving humanity" to "serving investors."

First, the report reveals the simultaneous collapse of OpenAI's two core pillars - "profit cap" and "non-profit oversight".

The original "Capped-Profit" model is its core philosophy, aimed at ensuring that the immense wealth created by AGI can be shared with all of humanity and preventing excessive concentration of wealth. However, this commitment has been gradually hollowed out: from a superficial reduction of profit multiples that seemingly strengthens the mission, to the secret introduction of the clause of "automatically increasing by 20% each year," which effectively renders it meaningless, to ultimately planning to completely remove the cap, marking the definitive end of the wealth-sharing concept.

At the same time, its oversight mechanism has been cleverly weakened. OpenAI has transformed from an entity completely controlled by a non-profit organization into a public benefit corporation in Delaware. The legal obligation has shifted from 'mission-first' to 'balancing shareholder interests and public interests.' The report notes that historically, 'there is no precedent for shareholders successfully suing to protect public interests,' which makes the commitment to public benefit nearly unenforceable in legal practice. This suggests that the 'public benefit' commitment of a PBC may, in reality, become a shell, providing substantial legal cover for the pursuit of profit maximization.

Image source: openaifiles.org/

The report further refutes OpenAI's official statement that it abandoned its commitments due to "intense industry competition." By citing the company's early charter and internal emails, the report proves that OpenAI fully anticipated and prepared to deal with intense industry competition from the very beginning. Therefore, using competition as a reason for abandoning commitments is a baseless "revisionist history." The real motivation behind this is that both investors and company executives believe in its enormous profit potential, making the removal of limits crucial.

CEO Integrity: CEO Behavior Patterns Trigger Trust Crisis

The report further points out that CEO Sam Altman has a long-standing, documented pattern of inconsistent behavior, manipulation of information, and evasion of oversight, as well as placing personal interests above organizational responsibilities.

The report lists several instances where Sam Altman publicly lied or misled on significant issues. For example:

On the issue of the employee non-disparagement agreement, Altman publicly claimed ignorance of the "depriving departing employees of equity" clause, but documents show he explicitly authorized this clause.

During his sworn testimony in the Senate, he claimed he had no equity in OpenAI, but later admitted to having held it indirectly through a fund.

Concealing the fact that he personally owns the OpenAI startup fund from the board for a long time.

Former board member Helen Toner directly accused Altman of obstructing the board's duties by "concealing information, distorting facts, and even outright lying." The report also indicates that this pattern of behavior has been consistent throughout his career:

During the Loopt period, senior employees attempted twice to have the board dismiss him on the grounds of "deceptive and chaotic" behavior.

During his time at Y Combinator, he neglected his duties due to focusing on personal projects and was ultimately "let go" by founder Paul Graham.

The most dramatic manifestation is that after being dismissed by the OpenAI board, he leveraged his influence to reverse the situation, using "the removal of the board members who fired him and the installation of his own allies" as conditions for his return, successfully achieving a "counterattack" on the supervisory system.

Operational and Security Risks: Systematic Failure of Security Commitments

The report reveals that OpenAI exhibits a systemic inconsistency between its public commitments and internal practices regarding safety and transparency. The company culture shows a tendency of "speed over security," systematically undermining, evading, or even punishing internal safety oversight and dissent in pursuit of commercial interests and competitive advantages.

The report reveals systematic inconsistencies in OpenAI's actions and statements regarding safety and transparency. The company had promised to allocate 20% of its computing resources to the "super alignment" safety team, but according to former head Jan Leike, this resource was never allocated. During the development of GPT-4o, the safety team was asked to "quickly complete" testing before the product launch, and the company had even planned a release celebration before the evaluation had begun.

Worse still, the company threatens departing employees with harsh exit agreements, stating that if they criticize the company, they will lose millions of dollars in equity. Employee Leopold Aschenbrenner was fired for submitting a national security risk memorandum to the board, and the company explicitly informed him that the reason for his termination was his "escalating" report of security issues.

The report also pointed out that OpenAI experienced a serious security incident in 2023 involving a hacking breach and the theft of AI technology details, but did not report it to authorities or the public for a year. Several current and former employees accused the company of having a "reckless and secretive culture" that prioritizes "profits and growth" over safety missions.

Conflict of Interest Risk: The Depth of CEO Personal Investments Tied to Company Business

The report reveals in detail how Sam Altman established a vast and interwoven personal investment network, which has profound and direct conflicts of interest with OpenAI's business, technology, and strategic partnerships, fundamentally challenging OpenAI's stated mission of "benefiting all of humanity."

The following are several typical cases:

Helion (nuclear fusion energy): Sam Altman is both the chairman and a major investor of Helion, as well as the CEO of OpenAI. He personally led the transaction in which OpenAI purchased a large amount of energy from Helion. There are reasons to question whether this deal was primarily to secure his personal substantial investment in Helion.

Worldcoin (cryptocurrency project): Sam Altman is a co-founder of Worldcoin. OpenAI has established an official partnership with Worldcoin (such as providing free GPT-4 services). People question whether this is truly an equal business collaboration or if Sam Altman is leveraging OpenAI's resources and brand to support and promote his own high-risk project.

Humane (AI Hardware): Sam Altman is the largest shareholder of Humane, and Humane's products heavily rely on OpenAI's models. As the CEO of OpenAI, he has a strong personal financial incentive to ensure that Humane receives favorable terms or priority technical support, which could harm the interests of other customers and the fairness of the market.

These intricate relationships of interests have severely undermined Sam Altman's fiduciary duty as CEO. Are his decisions truly for the mission of OpenAI, or for his personal wealth growth? The picture ultimately painted by the report is that Altman resembles a shrewd capital operator, cleverly positioning OpenAI at the center of his personal business empire, and systematically leveraging his position as CEO to transform OpenAI's technologies, resources, and strategic relationships into driving forces for the growth of his personal investment portfolio.