Open Letter
in Support of AB 501
AB 501 will close the loophole that allows nonprofits to privatize assets that were dedicated to humanitarian purposes.
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Members of the California State Legislature,
Nonprofits should fulfill their charitable missions, not generate private wealth. Organizations like OpenAI were established with binding commitments to benefit humanity, not shareholders. California Assembly Bill 501 aims to prevent OpenAI executives from converting a decade-old charitable organization—whose legal mission is to develop Artificial General Intelligence for humanity's collective benefit—into a vehicle for personal enrichment. We strongly support AB 501 to preserve the integrity of nonprofit institutions and ensure they remain accountable to their founding humanitarian purposes.
By exploiting a loophole in California's nonprofit laws, OpenAI is shifting from its original purpose of developing AGI for the benefit of humanity, thereby breaching their fiduciary duty to humanity and to all those who trusted in OpenAI's original charter.
If OpenAI succeeds in wresting this technology from humanity and placing it under investor control, it will mark one of the greatest acts of expropriation in human history.
We urge you to join us in support of AB 501.
Post-script 4/7/2025:
We are disappointed that our bill author changed the bill language from preventing non-profit abuse to aircraft liens. We are shocked.
Please sign the open letter in support of our original non-profit abuse bill so we could stop the abuse and bring this bill to a vote.
Signatories:
Yann LeCun
Professor, New York University
Stuart Russell
Professor of Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley
Lawrence Lessig
Professor, Harvard Law School
Gary Marcus
Professor Emeritus, NYU
Extra Statement
Remmelt Ellen
Research Coordinator, AI Safety Camp
Extra Statement
Erik Passoja
Co-chair AI Ethics, SAG
Extra Statement
Family of Suchir Balaji
OpenAI Whistleblower, Departed
Extra Statement
Hal Daumé III
Professor, University of Maryland
Andrew Barto
Professor Emeritus, Universithy of Massachusetts Amherst
Tyler Johnston
Executive Director, The Midas Project
Ariel Bronner
PhD Student, Princeton
Existential Risk Observatory
Organization
Heather-Ashley Boyer
Actor and AI Policy Advisor
Karen A. Brown
SAG-AFTRA L.A. GAPP Committee, StardustBlue Media
Charbel-Raphaël Segerie
Executive Director, Centre pour la Sécurité de l'IA (CeSIA)
James Croak
Westworld
Extra Statement
Derek Allen
Activist, Stop AI
Center for Existential Safety
Organization
Michelle Hurd
Actor, Netflix
Gretchen Krueger
Fellow, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Gretchen Krueger
Iñigo Parra
PhD Student, University of California, Berkeley
NYU
Organization
Karl Koch
Founder, OAISIS/Third Opinion - Supporting Concerned Insiders in AI
Amir Soltani
AI Researcher
Jacobo Elosua
Founder, Iris.ai
Honna Gowri Manjunath
Engineer, Arista
Alexander Davis
Software Engineer, AMD
James Norris
Founder & Executive Director, Center for Existential Safety
Michael Cohen
Postdoctoral fellow, UC Berkeley
Bogdan-Ionut Cirstea
Independent AI safety researcher, Independent
Avinash Rajput
Founder, SSS Foundation
PauseAI
Organization
Sreejith Sreedharan
Author, Careforcom Advisory
Extra Statement
Woody Schultz
Actor/Producer, SAG-AFTRA
Stacey Petrasek
Retired postal carrier, USPS
Extra Statement
Don Comrie
Model Builder, Neurolabs, Inc
Florent Berthet
Director of Operations, Centre pour le Sécurité de l'IA
Vlad Ciobanu
Software developer, Wittmann
Extra Statement
Eric Ellsworth
Data Scientist, Personal
Extra Statement
Kendall Davis
Microfabrication Engineer, University of Southern California
SNIGDHA SARKAR
Creative Writer, Rupa Publications
Extra Statement
savitha elam kootil
Physician, Kaiser Permanente
Jessica Inglewood
Teacher, Russell Elementary
Gary Randall
PhD Cog Sci, BMT UK
Jeroen Franse
AI Governance Advisor, ABN AMRO Bank
Anu Mehrotra
Director Software Development, Sage Inc.
Nick Tarleton
CTO, HealthcareAgents
Chuck Walrad
retired software engineer, IEEE
Extra Statement
Indah Harahap
Member, OAISIS - Third Opinion / Supporting Concerned Insiders in AI
Stacey Travis
Actor, None
Aníbal M. Astobiz
EMERGIA Research Fellow, University of Granada
Katia Ricciarelli V. Reed
Multi Artist / Hybrid Artist, VSeeN USA
Tristan Roberts
Researcher, Research Collective
Sam Mitchell
Analyst, OECD
Girish Bangalore
Homes By Girish
Laura Smith
Librarian, Santa Fe Community College
Geeta Sikand
Retired, Retired
Kay Kozaronek
Product Manager, PRISM Eval
HSCT Publishing, LLC
Organization
Anne Mulder
Global, Broek, Jacobs and Bakker
Degen Tekle
Student, University of Geneva
Extra Statement
Michael Brendel
Journalist, Spaehgypeten
Tashinga Mtoko
Software Developer
Ruben Bouwmeester
Innovation Manager, na
Avi Glozman
Software Engineer, Mercury
Extra Statement
Siva Yarlagadda
SW ENg, ZSCALER
Deepayan Das
Phd Student, University of Trento
Subha Tammana
Law
Abhishek Das
Tech consultant
Gabriel Sherman
Sustainability Coordinator, USANA
Extra Statement
Preethi Viswanathan
preethi viswanathan
Maceo Bishop
Cinematographer, Long Shot Inc.
Govind Rajan
Engineer
Edgar Vea
Student., None.
Extra Statement
Frances Fisher
A tress
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