PANews reported on January 7 that Mario Nawfal, founder and CEO of IBC Group, said on the X platform that Encode, a youth-led organization, has filed a stunning friend-of-the-court brief urging the federal court to block OpenAI from turning into a for-profit entity, warning that such a move could expose humanity to existential risks posed by artificial intelligence for the sake of investor returns. Experts including Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton and artificial intelligence pioneer Stuart Russell supported the motion, arguing that turning into a for-profit institution would undermine safeguards designed to ensure that advanced artificial intelligence is consistent with public safety.

“OpenAI’s nonprofit mission is more than a promise — it’s the lifeblood of humanity,” said Sneha Revanur, president of ENCODE. “Turning it into a profit machine puts everyone at risk.”

A court hearing in the case is scheduled for January 14.