Over the past week, OpenAI has faced backlash over subpoenas it sent to nonprofits accused of conspiring with Elon Musk to amplify public criticism of OpenAI as it sought to shift from a nonprofit to for-profit structure.
The subpoenas are supposed to support OpenAI's defense in a lawsuit Musk's X Corp filed to block the for-profit transition. Seeking a "wide variety of documents"—including a sweeping request for all communications regarding Musk and all information on nonprofits' funders and donations—OpenAI claimed that the subpoenas are intended to probe if Musk was involved in the actions or paid nonprofits to make critical comments, NBC News wrote in a report exhaustively documenting the controversy.
But nonprofits have alleged it's obvious that OpenAI is using the lawsuit to harass, silence, and intimidate its critics—most glaringly when it comes to targeting nonprofits that are even more publicly critical of Musk's companies than they are of OpenAI.
Emma Ruby-Sachs, executive director for Ekō—a nonprofit that serves as a global consumer watchdog holding the "biggest companies in the world accountable"—told NBC News that "the logical basis" for sending the subpoena "is so ridiculous that we have to assume this is just a tactic to scare us and get us to back off."
Ruby-Sachs noted that Ekō called for Musk to be fired as the head of DOGE earlier this year. Running a billboard in Times Square that showed a grinning Musk donning a crown, Ekō urged passersby to contact Congress if they "don't want a king."
Further, Ekō had corresponded with OpenAI prior to receiving the subpoena, confirming that "we’re over 70 percent funded by small online donations from individuals, and we’ve run multiple campaigns against Elon Musk in the last year," Ruby-Sachs said.