OpenAI’s Unreleased AGI Paper Could Complicate Microsoft Negotiations
A small clause The Openai contract with Microsoft, formerly considered a distant hypothetical, has now become a flash point in one of the largest partnerships in technology.
The clause indicates that if the Board of Directors of Openai never declares that it has developed an artificial general intelligence (AG), it would limit contractual access from Microsoft to future startup technologies. Microsoft, which has invested more than $ 13 billion in Openai, was now going to put pressure on the withdrawal of the clause and plans to move away from the agreement, according to the Financial Times.
At the end of last year, the tensions around the suddenly essential role of AG in the Microsoft agreement spread in a debate within OpenAI on an internal research document, according to several sources familiar with the problem. Entitled “Five capacity levels of general AI”, the paper describes a framework to classify the progressive stages of AI technology. By making specific affirmations on future AI capacities, say the sources, the document could have complicated Openai’s ability to declare that it had reached AG, a potential lever point in negotiations.
“We focused on the development of empirical methods to assess the progress of AGA – reproducible, measurable and useful work in the broader field,” said Openai spokesperson Lindsay McCallum, in a written comment in Wired. “The” five levels “were a first attempt to classify stages and terminology to describe the general capacities of the AI. It was not a scientific research document. ” Microsoft refused to comment.
In a blog article describing its corporate structure, Openai notes that AGE “is excluded from IP licenses and other commercial terms with Microsoft”. OPENAI defined acts as “a highly autonomous system that surpasses humans at the most economically precious work”.
The two companies have renegotiated their agreement while Openai is preparing a restructuring of companies. While Microsoft wants continuous access to OPENAI models, even if the startup declares AGE before the end of the partnership in 2030, a person familiar with partnership discussions tells Wired that Microsoft does not believe that Openai will reach this deadline. But another source close to the question describes the clause as an ultimate lever effect of Openai. The two sources have obtained anonymity to speak freely about private discussions.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Openai even examined the opportunity to invoke the clause on the basis of an AI coding agent. The talks have become so loaded that Optai would have discussed if he had to publicly accuse Microsoft of anti -competitive behavior, according to the newspaper.
A familiar source with the discussions, has granted anonymity to speak freely about the negotiations, says that Openai is quite close to achieving act; Altman said he expects to see him during Donald Trump’s current mandate.
This same source suggests that there are two relevant definitions: first, the OPENAI board of directors can unilaterally decide that the company has reached act as defined in its charter, which would immediately lead to Microsoft of access to technology or income from AG; Microsoft would always have rights on everything before this stage. Second, the contract includes a sufficient concept of act, added in 2023, which defines act as a system capable of generating a certain level of profit. If Openai says he has reached this reference, Microsoft must approve the determination. The contract also prohibits Microsoft from continuing acted alone or through third parties using OPENAI IP.
