OpenAI subpoenas AI safety advocate with law enforcement visit amid Musk legal battle

OpenAI has subpoenaed AI regulation advocate Nathan Calvin and his organization Encode AI, with a sheriff’s deputy serving the legal documents at Calvin’s home during dinner. The subpoenas, issued as part of OpenAI’s countersuit against Elon Musk, demand personal messages between Calvin and California legislators, college students, and former OpenAI employees—a move that Calvin and critics view as intimidation tactics against regulatory advocates.

What you should know: OpenAI used its legal dispute with Musk as a vehicle to investigate organizations advocating for AI regulation.

• Calvin works for Encode AI, which recently pushed for California’s SB 1001 AI safety bill that was signed into law in September.
• The subpoenas were served while the California AI regulation bill was still being debated in the legislature.
• Calvin refused to turn over any of the requested documents.

The big picture: The San Francisco Standard previously reported that OpenAI subpoenaed Encode AI to determine whether the organization receives funding from Elon Musk.

• OpenAI’s countersuit against Musk claims the billionaire has engaged in “bad-faith tactics to slow down OpenAI.”
• The company also subpoenaed Meta about its involvement with Musk’s $97.4 billion takeover bid.
• Encode AI advocates for AI safety and recently challenged OpenAI on preserving its nonprofit mission amid corporate restructuring plans.

Who else is involved: Tyler Johnston, founder of AI watchdog group The Midas Project, reported receiving similar subpoenas from OpenAI.

• Johnston said OpenAI requested “a list of every journalist, congressional office, partner organization, former employee, and member of the public” his organization has spoken to about OpenAI’s restructuring.
• Even OpenAI’s own head of mission alignment, Joshua Achiam, criticized the company’s tactics on social media.

What they’re saying: Calvin believes OpenAI is using intimidation tactics to silence critics.

• “I believe OpenAI used the pretext of their lawsuit against Elon Musk to intimidate their critics and imply that Elon is behind all of them,” Calvin said.
• “This is not normal. OpenAI used an unrelated lawsuit to intimidate advocates of a bill trying to regulate them. While the bill was still being debated,” he added.

Internal pushback: OpenAI’s Joshua Achiam publicly criticized his own company’s approach on social media.

• “At what is possibly a risk to my whole career I will say: this doesn’t seem great,” Achiam wrote.
• “We can’t be doing things that make us into a frightening power instead of a virtuous one. We have a duty to and a mission for all of humanity. The bar to pursue that duty is remarkably high.”