I suspect it’s a basic corporate pillaging of a nonprofit that accidentally created something of gigantic value. MS wanted the company, but Quora has its own interest and stood in the way. Now MS will get part of the employees and Quora will get the leftovers. Quora has been trying to IPO for a while so AI magic dust may be just what they need for an exit.
All the AI safety stuff was a fig leaf for pure corporate machinations.
People like conspiracy theories because it simplifies the world, aligns things into easy to understand Big Bad actions that they can understand. But conspiracies don't work because the world isn't that predictable.
The real world is messier. When you zoom in, people have emotions, misunderstandings, different values. Noone can predict how it all plays out.
It’s not a conspiracy theory, just economic incentives of MS CEO, Quora CEO, and every employee who would rather get rich than work at a nonprofit. The nonprofit structure was in no one’s interest except for a very small cohort of AI Doomers and anti-corporate folks, who I assume would not want to work for Microsoft and probably number less than 100 out of 700. It turned out that the people dedicated to the Nonprofit’s mission had very little power since they relied wholly on MS for funding and compute.
All the AI safety stuff was a fig leaf for pure corporate machinations.