FTX wishes to investigate the millions it has donated to the Center for AI Safety, a non-profit that argued AI should be a global priority.
FTX, a defunct cryptocurrency exchange, seeks information regarding payments totaling millions of dollars made to the Center for AI Safety (CAIS), a nonprofit artificial intelligence (AI) safety organization.
In a 25 October bankruptcy court filing, FTX’s attorneys claimed the company gave $6.5 million to CAIS between May and September 2022, months before the crypto exchange collapsed and filed for bankruptcy.
FTX seeks approval from a Delaware Bankruptcy Court judge to issue subpoenas to CAIS inquiring whether it received payments, funds, communications, or entered into agreements or contracts with FTX, its affiliates, or former executives.
The exchange asserts that CAIS denied “requests to provide an accounting related to the transfers voluntarily,” the two companies communicated via telephone in August and via email in early October. The CAIS did not respond promptly to a request for comment.
FTX’s request to investigate CAIS is likely part of its efforts to recover funds to recompense its creditors and customers affected by its November 2022 bankruptcy.
FTX stated in a June report that it had recovered approximately $7 billion and required an additional $1.7 billion to cover misappropriated customer funds.
CAIS is best known for an open statement on AI risk published in May, which stated that mitigating extinction risks from AI should be a higher priority than nuclear conflict. Multiple prominent figures signed the statement, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the “Godfather” of artificial intelligence (AI), Geoffrey Hinton.
The subpoenas proposed by FTX require CAIS to produce a variety of transfers, documents, and communications received from FTX, FTX Philanthropy, the FTX Foundation, the FTX Future Fund, “or any officer, director, contractor, or employee” of FTX.
In addition, it requests specific communications from co-founders Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang, Bankman-Fried’s father, Joseph Bankman, and brother, Gabriel Bankman-Fried, former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, and former FTX attorneys Can Sun and Daniel Friedberg, among others.
