[Linkpost] “What OpenAI Told California’s Attorney General” by Garrison

In a previously unreported letter, the AI company defends its restructuring plan while attacking critics and making surprising admissions

This is the full text of a post first published on Obsolete, a Substack that I write about the intersection of capitalism, geopolitics, and artificial intelligence. I’m a freelance journalist and the author of a forthcoming book called Obsolete: Power, Profit, and the Race to Build Machine Superintelligence. Consider subscribing to stay up to date with my work.

OpenAI was founded as a counter to the perils of letting profit shape the development of an unprecedentedly powerful technology — one its founders have said could lead to human extinction. But in a newly obtained letter from OpenAI lawyers to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, the company reveals what it apparently fears more: anything that slows its ability to raise gargantuan amounts of money.

The previously unreported [...]

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Outline:

(00:12) In a previously unreported letter, the AI company defends its restructuring plan while attacking critics and making surprising admissions

(03:26) Revelations

(04:20) The key question

(05:45) Competitors and critics

(08:34) Employee motivations

(10:10) Contestable claims

(11:30) Whats left unsaid

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First published:

May 17th, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/9oF3GmMae2ssYSXwP/what-openai-told-california-s-attorney-general

Linkpost URL:
https://www.obsolete.pub/p/exclusive-what-openai-told-californias

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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