WASHINGTON, DC – Today, The Tech Oversight Project and the Midas Project released “The OpenAI Files,” an investigative report documenting the turbulent past decade at OpenAI as the organization has grown from an idealistic nonprofit into an unaccountable Big Tech giant. The report documents hundreds of sources that show how the company’s pursuit of restructuring would weaken its legal obligations and put millions of Americans at risk in the process.
“OpenAI loves to virtue signal that its mission is for the betterment of humanity, but this research shows that Sam Altman has repeatedly lied to board members, engaged in self-dealing, and refused to invest in product safety. They’re putting lives at risk,” said Sacha Haworth, Executive Director of The Tech Oversight Project. “Lawmakers and regulators need to start treating OpenAI with the wariness they’ve developed for other Big Tech companies as they navigate the emerging world of overpromised artificial intelligence.”
“OpenAI’s nonprofit structure creates a fiduciary duty to humanity—a legal obligation to every reader of this report,” said Tyler Johnston, Executive Director at The Midas Project. “Now that they are trying to restructure, each of us may be deprived of a slice of the future to which we were previously entitled.”
When OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit in 2015, it made a commitment to the public: to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) would benefit all of humanity. This wasn’t just an intention—it was baked into the founding documents of the organization.
The report reveals that OpenAI is pursuing a restructuring that could:
- Remove legal safeguards that currently require the company to prioritize public benefit over investor interests
- Eliminate profit caps that ensure excess value flows to humanity rather than private investors
- Transfer managerial control from a nonprofit board with a sole duty to the public to a for-profit corporation with duties to shareholders
The investigation compiled evidence from over 200 sources, including testimonies from dozens of ex-employees, describing:
- Efforts to silence criticism through restrictive NDA agreements and threats to vested equity
- Multiple failures to live up to past safety commitments
- A pattern of prioritizing product launches over responsible development
- Board members with significant potential conflicts of interest overseeing the restructuring decision
The report calls for immediate action to preserve OpenAI’s mission and repair its culture, including maintaining profit caps, ensuring the primacy of its mission, and implementing robust oversight mechanisms to uphold the company’s past commitments. The full report is available at www.openaifiles.org.