The Main Item
There aren’t many quieter days in the business world than December 27, but the most recent one featured a rather momentous announcement: OpenAI formally disclosed its plans to become a regular company, rather than a for-profit entity owned by a non-profit.
The move was hardly unexpected. The timing of the announcement, though, along with its unusual language, were among the indicators that this shift will be anything but routine. Another indicator: Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of generative AI, also chose Christmas week to back Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI via the progressive tech advocacy organization Encode, which contends the proposed makeover is a fraud on the charitable donors.
