Hello and welcome to Sync #500!

First of all, Happy New Year! Secondly, this is the 500th issue of Sync. Such a milestone offers a chance to reflect on nearly 10 years of writing a weekly newsletter and to look ahead to the future, which I’ll be sharing with you soon in a separate post.

In this 500th issue, we’ll take a closer look at OpenAI’s proposed new corporate structure, the reactions it has sparked, and its potential impact on the tech world.

In other news, Nvidia is already eyeing the next big thing after AI—robotics. Meanwhile, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has urged employees to prepare for a transformative 2025. We also have a comparison between ChatGPT Search and Google Search, an overview of how AI performed in the recently concluded Advent of Code 2024, and an analysis of the state of AI hardware startups.

Over in robotics, Figure AI has shipped its first humanoid robots to a paying customer, and BYD has entered the humanoid robotics race.

We’ll conclude this week’s issue with a look at what to expect from mRNA vaccines in 2025 and with a company promising to bring underwater habitats—where people can live and work tens or hundreds of metres below the surface—a step closer to reality.

Enjoy!

OpenAI proposes a new corporate structure

The last three years have been a time of massive growth for OpenAI. The AI lab went from a startup known primarily within the tech and AI community into a poster child of the current AI boom.

However, such massive growth requires massive transformation. OpenAI is no longer the same company that released ChatGPT in November 2022 as an experiment. The company's leadership has changed. Many key people, such as Mira Murati, former CTO, and Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and former chief scientist, left the company. Meanwhile, hundreds of new employees have joined, all contributing to a shift in the company’s culture and priorities.

Over the years, OpenAI has changed. Now, facing new challenges as a leader in the AI space valued at $157 billion, OpenAI proposes to change itself once again. However, OpenAI is going against some powerful forces that could prevent its plans from happening.

How did we get here

OpenAI began as a non-profit organisation, founded in 2015 with the goal of ensuring that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. However, OpenAI’s leadership realised that the nonprofit structure, which reflected the altruistic spirit and ideals behind its creation, was incompatible with the goal of building AGI.

The research and development of advanced AI models require an enormous amount of computing power—first to train the models and then even more to deploy them at scale to millions of users (OpenAI has 300 million weekly users). A non-profit organisation was not attractive to investors, who seek returns on their investments. Consequently, OpenAI began exploring ways to transform itself into a for-profit company.

Email conversations revealed by both Elon Musk’s legal team and OpenAI indicate that discussions about transforming OpenAI into a for-profit company began as early as 2017. In 2019, OpenAI announced a new corporate structure in which a for-profit entity ("OpenAI LP") is controlled by a non-profit board, with capped profit-sharing for investors and employees. This rather unusual hybrid corporate structure represents a compromise between the harsh reality that a tech company needs to operate as a for-profit entity to attract investments and the nonprofit model that embodies OpenAI’s original spirit.

OpenAI's turbulent early years - Sync #494 Conrad Gray · November 24, 2024 Read full story

The capped-profit structure served OpenAI well. It made the company more attractive to investors, who poured over $20 billion into it, including half of that amount secured in October 2024 ($6.6 billion from a Series B funding round and $4 billion borrowed from banks). This approach paved the way for ChatGPT and the current AI boom we are experiencing today.

However, those billions raised for building AGI are not enough. Reports published in the summer of 2024 revealed that OpenAI was on track to lose approximately $5 billion that year. The investments needed for the research and development of new models, as well as securing the computing power required to train and deploy them—whether through renting or building dedicated data centres—will demand even more resources and many more billions of dollars.

To address these challenges and position itself for a successful future, OpenAI plans to once again change its corporate structure.

OpenAI’s new corporate structure

OpenAI has announced its intention to transition its for-profit arm into a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) by 2025. “As we enter 2025, we will have to become more than a lab and a startup — we have to become an enduring company,” states OpenAI.

According to OpenAI, the PBC model is the solution to balancing shareholder interests, stakeholder priorities, and public benefits in its decision-making, potentially offering a middle ground between traditional for-profit goals and its founding mission.

Unlike traditional for-profit companies, which are solely focused on maximizing shareholder value, PBCs are legally required to balance profit-making with its stated public benefit. For OpenAI, this means ensuring that its mission of advancing AI to benefit all humanity remains central to its operations, even as it raises capital and grows its business.

The for-profit entity will adopt a PBC structure, allowing OpenAI to raise capital with conventional equity terms while maintaining a commitment to public benefit. The non-profit will retain significant equity in the PBC, providing it with substantial resources to fund charitable initiatives in sectors like health care, education, and science. The non-profit's influence will shift away from controlling the for-profit to focusing on its charitable initiatives and ensuring that OpenAI’s mission of benefiting humanity remains central.

The tough road ahead

OpenAI plans, however, have been met with criticism and opposition.

Critics argue that OpenAI’s new corporate structure will prioritise investors and revenue over the company’s original mission of building AIG that benefits all of humanity. Others raised concerns that the transition could exploit non-profit tax benefits while operating as a for-profit entity.

The strongest opposition to OpenAI’s plans comes from Elon Musk. Musk, one of OpenAI’s founders and a significant financial supporter in its early days, left the organisation in 2018 due to differences in visions for its direction and priorities. Since the release and subsequent success of ChatGPT, Musk has become a vocal critic of OpenAI.

In March 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its leadership, claiming that the organisation has strayed from its original non-profit mission of advancing AI for public benefit by prioritising profit through its collaboration with Microsoft. Musk argues that this shift undermines OpenAI’s commitment to open-source development and public welfare. The lawsuit seeks to realign OpenAI with its founding principles—a move which, if successful, would effectively end OpenAI as we know it today and dramatically limit its funding options.

Although Musk calls in the lawsuit for OpenAI to return to its non-profit roots, it is worth noting that he is also an owner of xAI, a competitor to OpenAI, which complicates his position. Reducing OpenAI’s market presence would undoubtedly benefit xAI.

Other competitors also see an opportunity to curb OpenAI’s growth and influence in the AI industry. Meta has aligned with Musk, sending a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta and arguing that allowing the shift would have “seismic implications for Silicon Valley.” Meanwhile, Google has reportedly urged the US Federal Trade Commission to end OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft, claiming the deal is “preventing them from competing in the burgeoning artificial intelligence market.”

The broader implications

No matter what happens with OpenAI’s restructuring plans, the impact on the tech industry and future startup founders will be profound.

OpenAI’s internal conflict between staying true to its ideals and navigating the realities of the modern business environment highlights that the romantic vision of a group of world-class researchers and engineers changing the world through a breakthrough invention alone is just that—a romantic vision. It demonstrates that achieving world-changing breakthroughs like AGI requires not only technological expertise but also substantial financial investments.

As one of the leading AI companies, OpenAI’s restructuring could set a precedent for how mission-driven organisations adapt to the demands of a competitive and capital-intensive market. It also raises important questions about how such transformative technologies should be governed and who should benefit from them.

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🦾 More than a human

▶️ Eva's First Steps Out of the Lab (6:25)

In this video, engineers and researchers from IHMC, a legendary name in robotics research and development space, share the first steps outside the lab of Eva, their robotic exoskeleton designed for people working in hazardous environments that require wearing heavy protective equipment. The walk outside the lab includes taking the first steps up and down stairs, as well as venturing outside the building, all accompanied by commentary from the person wearing the exoskeleton.

🔮 Future visions

▶️ Predictions for Technology, Civilization & Our Future (38:08)

It’s that time of year when predictions for 2025 and beyond abound. Isaac Arthur envisions an optimistic near future, where advancements in AI and robotics enhance daily life, life extension technologies help us live healthier and longer, and humanity takes its first significant steps toward colonizing the solar system. These innovations could bring profound societal changes, new discoveries, and unparalleled opportunities. Arthur also explores the challenges of predicting the future, emphasizing the importance of adaptability, informed decision-making, and shaping the future through deliberate action.

🧠 Artificial Intelligence

Google CEO Pichai tells employees to gear up for big 2025: ‘The stakes are high’
The last two years have not been good for Google. The tech giant was caught off guard by the sudden rise of OpenAI and is now trying to regain its position as the leader in AI. Additionally, the company faces increased competition and regulatory hurdles. Amidst these challenges, Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently told employees that “the stakes are high” for 2025, emphasising the need for urgency and faster execution. Pichai also highlighted the importance of staying "scrappy," citing Google’s early days as an example of innovation under constraints. The focus will be on leveraging advancements in AI (with Gemini playing a key role here) to address user problems and scale new technologies.

DeepSeek-V3, ultra-large open-source AI, outperforms Llama and Qwen on launch
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek released their new ultra-large model, DeepSeek-V3. According to the benchmarks provided by DeepSeek, this 671B parameters model is the strongest open model available and, in some benchmarks, outperforms GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Israel built an ‘AI factory’ for war. It unleashed it in Gaza.
The conflict in Gaza marks one of the first major uses of AI in warfare. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) deploy advanced tools like "Habsora" and "Lavender" to analyze intelligence and suggest targets, significantly speeding up operations. While these tools enhance efficiency, internal audits and critiques have highlighted flaws such as language processing inaccuracies, over-reliance on algorithmic recommendations, and a lack of transparency in distinguishing between AI-derived and human-sourced intelligence. Critics argue this automation has lowered thresholds for collateral damage, raising civilian death tolls. The shift to AI-centric operations has also sparked debates within the IDF, with concerns about the erosion of traditional intelligence practices and compromised decision-making integrity. These challenges underline the ethical and operational dilemmas posed by the use of AI in modern warfare.

Tenstorrent and the State of AI Hardware Startups
Here is an excellent (and entertaining) analysis of Tenstorrent and why, according to Irrational Analysis, Tenstorrent is one of the few AI hardware startups that makes sense. The piece explains in detail what Tenstorrent brings to the table and why they are probably the only AI hardware startup capable of breaking Nvidia’s and semi-custom (Google TPU, Amazon Trainium, Microsoft Maia) silicon moats. The post also contains a good analysis of the AI hardware startup ecosystem.

Performance of LLMs on Advent of code 2024
Over December, thousands of programmers were solving Advent of Code—an annual Christmas-themed series of coding challenges. Many used this as an opportunity to build their own coding agents and see how good they are at solving sometimes very challenging algorithmic problems. This post shares the results of one such experiment, which used GPT-4o, Gemini 1.5 Pro and Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

ChatGPT search vs. Google: A deep dive analysis of 62 queries
How does ChatGPT Search compare to Google Search? Here is a deep dive analysis comparing both search engines across 62 queries in various categories. The conclusion of this analysis is that Google Search remains the better solution for most searches, with ChatGPT Search being surprisingly competitive when it comes to informational queries.

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🤖 Robotics

Nvidia’s next move: Powering humanoid robots
After conquering AI, Nvidia is focusing on the next big thing: robotics. Nvidia aims to be an OEM supplier, supporting the global community of robot makers rather than competing directly with manufacturers such as Tesla. The company took steps towards this goal in 2024 and it looks like to double down on this approach in 2025 with the launch of a new generation of compact computers for humanoid robots, called Jetson Thor, in the first half of the year.

Figure AI ships Figure 02 humanoid robots to a paying customer
Brett Adcock, the CEO of Figure AI, shared on LinkedIn that the robotics startup has become revenue-generating and has delivered its Figure 02 humanoid robots to an undisclosed commercial client. Figure AI emerged from stealth in January 2023 and has rapidly developed, iterated, and tested humanoid robots. In 2023, the company raised $70 million in Series A funding and later secured a $675 million Series B round in 2024, with OpenAI among its investors.

BYD officially enters humanoid robot race as global talent search kicks off
A new player is entering the already crowded humanoid robotics scene. BYD, a leading Chinese EV maker, is joining the field of humanoid robots. Aside from announcing a global recruitment programme to attract top talent, targeting master’s and doctoral graduates from 2024–2025, details about BYD’s humanoid robot remain sparse.

Saudi Arabia invests in robots to help build its Neom desert megacity
Saudi Arabia is currently in the midst of several ambitious construction projects, including the Line megacity and the twin skyscrapers Epicon. The recently secured bid to host the FIFA World Cup 2034 is only set to fuel the country’s construction boom further. To tackle the massive projects ahead, Saudi Arabia is turning to robotics to help speed up construction and has made a significant investment in Europe’s GMT Robotics through Neom’s strategic investment arm, the Neom Investment Fund (NIF).

🧬 Biotechnology

The future of mRNA: companies and trials to watch in 2025
The Covid-19 vaccines have propelled mRNA vaccines into the spotlight. This article explores what can we expect from mRNA vaccines in 2025. Companies like Moderna and BioNTech are focusing on personalized cancer vaccines and HIV treatments, while Pfizer is leveraging its infrastructure for flu, shingles, and rare disease therapies. Other players, such as CureVac and Arcturus, are exploring second-generation mRNA technologies and novel delivery methods.

Genetically edited mosquitoes haven't scaled yet. Why?
Mosquitoes are among the deadliest organisms, responsible for spreading diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and the Zika virus. In this post, Eryney Marrogi explains the concept of gene drives—a method of genetically modifying mosquitoes to either suppress their populations or introduce anti-pathogenic genes, potentially eliminating their ability to transmit deadly diseases. While gene drives hold significant promise, the article provides an overview of their mechanisms and highlights the technical challenges (e.g., resistance development and species-specific variability), ecological risks, and ethical concerns tied to their deployment.

💡Tangents

In 2025, People Will Try Living in This Underwater Habitat
Science fiction is full of underwater habitats where people live and work tens or hundreds of metres below the surface. British startup Deep is on a mission to make that futuristic vision a reality, with the first step being the launch of Vanguard, a rapidly deployable, expedition-style underwater habitat the size of a shipping container, capable of housing three people at depths of about 100 metres. Testing is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2025. The startup then plans to launch Sentinel, a permanent modular habitat system, in 2027. Deep hopes that its permanent underwater habitats will benefit marine science and drive advancements in marine engineering and advanced manufacturing techniques.

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Humanity Redefined sheds light on the bleeding edge of technology and how advancements in AI, robotics, and biotech can usher in abundance, expand humanity's horizons, and redefine what it means to be human.

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