Microsoft's decision to give up OpenAI board observer seat doesn't quell key concerns

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (R) speaks as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (L) looks on during the OpenAI DevDay event in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2023. Microsoft has given up its observer seat on OpenAI's board. Apple , which was reportedly expected to take a similar observer position, will no longer pursue one, according to the Financial Times. But whatever clarity this week's changes were intended to provide, many of the same concerns persist. Regulators aren't turning away, and for those focused on ethics in artificial intelligence, the same fears — about profits taking precedence over safety — remain. Amba Kak, co-executive director of the nonprofit AI Now Institute, described the announcement as "subterfuge" designed to obscure the relationships between large tech companies and emerging players in AI. "The timing of this move matters," Kak wrote in a message to CNBC. "It should be seen as a direct response to global regulatory scrutiny to these unconventional relationships." The tight Microsoft-OpenAI bond and the outsized control the two companies have over the AI industry will continue to be scrutinized by the Federal Trade Commission, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named due to confidentiality. Meanwhile, the large swaths of AI developers and researchers who are concerned about safety and ethics in the increasingly for-profit AI industry are unmoved. Current and former OpenAI employees published an open letter on June 4, describing concerns about the rapid advancements taking place in AI, despite a lack of oversight and whistleblower protections. "AI companies have strong financial incentives to avoid effective oversight, and we do not believe bespoke structures of corporate governance are sufficient to change this," the employees wrote in the letter. They added that AI companies "currently have only weak obligations to share some of this information with governments, and none with civil society," and they can not be "relied upon to share it voluntarily." Days after the letter was published, a source familiar confirmed to CNBC that the FTC and the Justice Department were set to open antitrust investigations into OpenAI, Microsoft and Nvidia , focusing on the companies' conduct. FTC Chair Lina Khan has described her agency's action as a "market inquiry into the investments and partnerships being formed between AI developers and major cloud service providers." Kak told CNBC that regulators' pursuits are helping to get answers and deliver transparency.