European Union regulators are concerned that Microsoft may be covertly controlling OpenAI as its biggest investor.

  • Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    Wait, do you mean that the majority stakeholder in a company would try to control it? Pickachu face

    Yes, i am aware that the actual problem is that it is being done covertly and that the manoeuvring might have been to take control of the Non Profit

    • abhibeckert@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      They’re not a majority stakeholder. They invested $13b and a lot of that wasn’t cash, it was just credits to use Azure.

      That’s more money than anyone else has invested so far, but it’s only about 2 weeks revenue for Microsoft and not even close to enough to fund OpenAI.

      Wether or not they’re a non profit? I dunno. OpenAI’s structure is pretty unusual.

      • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        As I understand, OpenAI’s structure is similar to Mozilla’s, so a non-profit steers a for-profit.

        But there’s the massive difference that OpenAI’s for-profit takes on outside investors. That is where Microsoft has invested.
        As such, control over the for-profit really isn’t in the hands of the non-profit, because obviously, they have to satisfy whoever gives them money.

        In particular, it also means that unlike in Mozilla’s structure, where the for-profit is ‘neutered’ in that it can’t pay out profits to anyone, this really isn’t the case for OpenAI.

        So, all in all, I really don’t feel like the non-profit part of OpenAI has any real relevance.

      • technojamin@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        A year later, Microsoft revealed it’d built an Azure-hosted, OpenAI-co-designed supercomputer that at the time was among the most powerful machines in the world.

        I don’t think you can co-create a supercomputer with a company and not be deeply involved with them. Combine that with the inherent power Microsoft has because of their money, and I think it’s pretty easy to see how they could exercise control indirectly.