OpenAI wants to remove a clause about AGI from its Microsoft contract to encourage additional investments, report says

• OpenAI is reportedly looking into dropping a key clause from its multibillion-dollar Microsoft deal.
• The clause would reportedly end Microsoft's access to OpenAI's advanced models once the startup achieves AGI.
• It's meant to prevent misuse of AGI for commercial ends; nixing it could encourage Microsoft to invest more.

OpenAI is reportedly considering removing a clause from its contract with Microsoft in a move that could help it attract further investment from the tech giant.

The maker of ChatGPT is weighing whether to eliminate a clause that would close off Microsoft's access to its most advanced AI models once the startup achieves artificial general intelligence, or AGI, the Financial Times reported Friday, citing multiple people with knowledge of the discussions.

OpenAI defines AGI as "highly autonomous system that outperforms humans at most economically valuable work." The same post on its website adds, "AGI is explicitly carved out of all commercial and IP licensing agreements."

The clause is meant to keep AGI from being misused for commercial purposes. Removing it could encourage Microsoft to keep cash flowing to the AI company, the FT notes. Microsoft has invested at least $13 billion in OpenAI.

As the clause stands, OpenAI's nonprofit board will both decide when AGI is achieved and take ownership of the technology when that happens.

The FT reports that OpenAI's board is still discussing options and no final decision has been made yet.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman remains bullish that the company will achieve AGI in the near future.

"My guess is we will hit AGI sooner than most people in the world think and it will matter much less," he said at The New York Times' DealBook Summit this week.

Altman also touched on the company's financial needs at the event.

"When we started, we had no idea we were going to be a product company or that the capital we needed would turn out to be so huge," he said. "If we knew those things, we would have picked a different structure."

Reuters reported in September, citing sources familiar with the matter, that OpenAI is working on plans to restructure to a for-profit benefit corporation that would no longer be controlled by its nonprofit board and that would give Altman equity in the business for the first time.

OpenAI in October said it had closed a $6.6 billion funding round valuing the company at $157 billion.

OpenAI and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.