The tension between OpenAI's altruistic nonprofit roots and an internal push toward prioritizing profitability over safety is coming to a head. The news that the company's nonprofit days could end has some pondering: Has success warped yet another Silicon Valley darling, or was this the plan all along?

Resignations pile up as rumors swirl
A mass exodus of executives and co-founders continues amid news of a restructuring that will make OpenAI more attractive to potential investors. The company's longtime chief technology officer, Mira Murati, announced her departure to "create the time and space to do my own exploration," she said in a statement on X. That same day, Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew and VP of Research (Post-Training) Barret Zoph also resigned. The leadership changes are a "natural part of companies," Altman said in an X post following Murati's decision to step down. The abruptness admittedly overtook him, but "we are not a normal company." 

The latest resignations come as reports spread that OpenAI is planning to restructure itself as a for-profit enterprise next year, a "seismic shift" for the company that started as a nonprofit, said The Wall Street Journal. OpenAI was founded in 2015 to "benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return," according to a statement published at the time. 

Silicon Valley strikes again?
The pivot to for-profit status unmasks what has "long been happening within the company," Karen Hao said at The Atlantic. The nonprofit arm has continued to exist, but all the outside investments go "directly into the for-profit, which also hires the company's employees." The board crisis in which CEO Sam Altman was temporarily ousted tested the power between the two. Ultimately, the "money won, and Altman ended up on top."

It's worth noting that Altman's pivot "isn't an anomaly," Parmy Olson said at Bloomberg. It's a "recurring Silicon Valley theme" of "defining oneself with a lofty mission that's eventually eclipsed by rapid growth and profit." As long as they operate in a "regulatory vacuum," tech companies will "continue to paint a mirage about their objectives," said Olsen. "If Altman's latest actions make that more apparent, so much the better."

College campus protests against Israel have been ongoing since the Israel-Hamas war began, and now the backlash has landed at Brandeis University. Brandeis President Ronald Liebowitz announced he's resigning his position effective Nov. 1 following a vote of no confidence from the school's board. While budgeting issues were the main reason for the vote, Liebowitz's handling of anti-Israel, pro-Palestine protests was also cited as a major factor for his ousting.

Prevalent anti-Israel protests at Brandeis may be surprising to some, given that it's a historically Jewish university. While the school is officially secular, it implements a "set of values that are rooted in Jewish history and experience," according to the university, and it's estimated that about a third of the school's students are Jewish. But this has not made Brandeis immune to the ongoing debates about the Middle East conflict.

What led to the controversy?
As anti-Israel protests began at Brandeis, Liebowitz announced the university would "cut ties with the campus chapter of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)," said The New York Times. This was a "surprising development on a campus known for its vibrant history of campus dissent." Brandeis has historically seen anti-war protests during major conflicts like the Vietnam War.

As part of cutting ties with the SJP, it was announced that students "wishing to express support for Palestinian rights could form new student organizations in compliance with university policies," said The Jerusalem Post. The moving away from SJP was an effort to "provide an environment free of harassment and Jew hatred," said the Times. This all led to a split among faculty at the school, as the Brandeis chapter of SJP "called the decision 'racist,' accusing the university of silencing their voices," said the Post.

What's the bigger picture?
Liebowitz has become the "latest example of university presidents forced from office in part because of their handling of campus strife over the war," said Forbes. Similar things have happened at Columbia University, Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.