Geoffrey Hinton, widely regarded as the 'godfather of AI', has voiced strong opposition to OpenAI's move to transition from a nonprofit to a for-profit company, as per a recent report by Business Insider. In a statement shared by Encode, an organisation advocating for ethical AI, Hinton criticised the shift as a betrayal of the company's founding principles.

"OpenAI was established as a safety-focused nonprofit and made commitments to that mission in its charter," said Hinton, who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in neural networks. "It received significant tax and other benefits under that structure. Abandoning those commitments now sets a troubling precedent for others in the AI field."

As per Business Insider, Hinton's remarks align with legal efforts by Elon Musk, who cofounded OpenAI in 2015 but left its board in 2018. Musk has filed an injunction to block OpenAI's transition, arguing that the company is prioritising profits over its original goal of ensuring AI safety and public accountability.

Encode has also lent its support to Musk's case. "OpenAI's pivot to a profit-driven model shows why public oversight is crucial in shaping the future of transformative technologies," said Adam Billen, Encode's vice president of public policy, as per the Business Insider report.

Hinton, who left Google in 2023 to focus on ethical concerns in AI, has previously criticised OpenAI. At an October press conference, he described CEO Sam Altman as "more focused on profits than safety," calling the situation "unfortunate".

The debate now comes as OpenAI, now valued at $157 billion after a recent $6.6 billion funding round, faces increasing scrutiny over its commercial ambitions, further states the report.