OpenAI is an organization that creates artificial intelligence technology and has decided that one of its founding ideals— to be a non-profit — is no longer its whole deal.

It has converted itself into a for-profit company, able to issue stock to employees and generate returns, it said on Monday.

It calls itself a "capped-profit" company. That's a term it coined to mean it will limit the amount of money it returns to investors and employees and use most of whatever it generates to fund its non-profit entity, which will continue to exist. The non-profit entity will rule the company's board with more board seats, and investors and employees have to sign a pledge acknowledging that the non-profit comes before their financial interests.

"Returns for our first round of investors are capped at 100x their investment (commensurate with the risks in front of us), and we expect this multiple to be lower for future rounds as we make further progress," the OpenAI said in a blog post announcing the change.

Read: Oprah says there's a very simple secret to success that anyone can do: setting a deliberate intention

Obviously, there's nothing wrong with being a for-profit business. But there is something notable in OpenAI's about-face given how it was founded and by whom.

OpenAI was originally launched by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Y Combinator chairman Sam Altman in December 2015 with a $1 billion endowment.

Sam Altman Drew Angerer/Getty That $1 billion came from Musk and other tech bigwigs such as Reid Hoffman, Y Combinator founder Jessica Livingston, famed VC Peter Thiel, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Infosys, and YC Research. The organization's CTO, Greg Brockman, formerly the CTO of Stripe, also kicked in.

Musk left the board in February, 2018, due to conflicts of interests as Tesla delved deeper into AI tech for self-driving cars.

He is not formally involved with OpenAI LP, the for-profit company, it says, however his name remains associated with OpenAI as a founder and contributor to its original $1 billion kitty. Musk also hired away Andrej Karpathy from OpenAI to work on Tesla's self-driving cars some months before he left the board.

OpenAI was founded in part because of Musk's concerns about the potential dangers of AI. Back in 2014 at at talk at MIT, he said AI was humanity's "biggest existential threat" and likened the tech to "summoning the demon."

OpenAI was intended to be the anecdote in that it would create all sorts of AI technologies but would freely give them to world. If everyone had AI, than one side couldn't use it to subjugate another, the theory went, and if profits were not the focus the group was free to work solely on projects to help humanity.

"Our goal is to advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return. Since our research is free from financial obligations, we can better focus on a positive human impact," the organization said in a blog post in 2015 when it was founded.

Read: How Oracle inadvertently helped Nvidia spend $6.9 billion to win a deal away from Intel

OpenAI has since gone on to hire 100 people and release a whole bunch of free and open source AI projects. For instance, it's created tech that can help teach computers to understand language, to learn in new ways, to control robotic arms and movement, even to beat amateur human teams in playing the video game Dota 2.

Last month it made headlines by creating a bot that could create such convincing troll-like fake news that the organization decided not to release the full project, lest it be misused. Instead, it released a smaller, water-down version, reported the Register.

Meanwhile, Altman just left Y Combinator last week to focus on the CEO role at OpenAI.

But convincing top talent to work for a non-profit when they can be getting big bucks and stock from startups and major tech companies could not have been easy. Now OpenAI's employees will work for the for-profit entity, it said. The non-profit side will handle educational programs and engage in policy discussions.

AUSTIN, Texas — Calls to break up tech giants like Google and Facebook are overly simplistic and unlikely to be effective, according to the creators of Instagram, one of the most high-profile tech acquisitions of recent years.

"Being big, in and of itself, is not a crime," Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom said on stage Monday at the SXSW festival in response to a question about presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren's recent proposal to split up powerful tech companies.

Systrom and cofounder Mike Krieger sold Instagram to Facebook in 2012 for $1 billion. After working at Facebook for several years and helping to turn the photo-sharing app into one of the world's most popular social media services, Systrom and Krieger left Facebook last year amid differences over strategy and direction.

When asked if he supported the thrust of Warren's proposal at SXSW on Monday, Systrom initially said "Do we get our job back?," before clarifying that he was joking.

Systrom acknowledged that while there was a lot of anger against big tech — whether due to Russian meddling in elections or rising property prices — that doesn't mean that the companies ought to be broken up.

"We live in a time where I think the anger against big tech has increased tenfold," he said. "Breaking companies up is a very specific prescription for a very specific problem."

He added that if the objective was to fix economic issues or Russian interference, there were other ways of doing that. But he said that companies shouldn't be penalized merely for their size, and that Warren's solution was "not nuanced enough" and shows "that the understanding of the problem isn't there."

Talk of regulating Silicon Valley has dominated SXSW this year, with Warren's proposal to break up Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook coming up in conversation at almost every panel. BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti, for instance, said on Friday that platforms and media need to work together.

Read More: 'The people at the platforms are good people': BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti responds to Elizabeth Warren's proposal to break up the tech giants

Systrom said that doesn't mean that companies shouldn't be broken up if they get too big, or are monopolies and can cause problems. But that it was going to take some more thought.

"It's going to take a more nuanced proposal, but my fear is that something like a proposal to break up all tech is playing on everyone's current feeling of anti-tech, rather than doing what I think politicians should do, which is address real problems and give real solutions," he said.

And Systrom said that his company's marriage with Facebook made Instagram a better product.

"Better ideas came out because of it — we grew both companies, not just one company," he said. "I think there's a strong argument that, in fact, the acquisition worked out for consumers."

Krieger too shared his thoughts, saying that there needed to be clarity on the specific problems that Warren's plan was trying to solve, and that different problems required different solutions.

"Is it about Amazon white-labeling products inside Amazon?," said Krieger. "Because that's a very different problem than whether Facebook should also own Instagram, which is a really different problem than whether Apple has the right to be one App Store only."

It's not an easy time to be a cable provider. As millions of people realize they only ever watch a tiny fraction of the channels in their cable package, they're switching over to and relying entirely upon subscription-based streaming services in droves.

Though I haven't had cable in six years, I do miss it sometimes. Most US adults, myself included, still prefer getting their news through TV, but none of my streaming subscriptions have local news channels. There's also the thrill of watching sports games, awards shows, and reality talent competitions in real time with viewers across the country, not knowing exactly what's going to happen next — which, again, is missing with streaming subscriptions.

Of course, there are live TV streaming options like Hulu Live and ESPN+, but they can cost hundreds of dollars a year, so the ultimate cost savings may be minimal.

In late 2018, Amazon began shipping out its solution, called the Fire TV Recast ($229.99+), a box that lets you watch and record live TV on your Fire TV, Echo Show, or phone. It's another option to consider as you figure out what TV content you care most about watching and how you want to watch it. I got my hands on the Recast to see why you might want to add it to your home entertainment setup.

Here's what you need to make the Fire TV Recast work and how to set it up:

In order to watch and record live TV, you'll need the Fire TV Recast device, a Fire TV Stick or Fire TV Edition television, and an HD antenna. If you're missing the last two devices, Amazon offers a bundle of all three for only $20 more.

As long as you follow the set up instructions closely and your devices (the Recast and the Fire TV stick or television) are all connected to the same network and account, your Recast should be up and running within half an hour.

The Recast unit and your HD antenna don't have to be placed near your TV, which was a relief to find out since that area is often already cluttered enough. In fact, it's better if your antenna is mounted on a window. The Recast itself isn't too big, measuring 7.1" x 7.1" x 2.9" and weighing 2.4 pounds.

The Fire TV app walks you through the set up process. Amazon Fire TV

After the antenna scans for all the channels within its radius, you can start watching content on your TV or smartphone.

On your Fire TV, a new section, "DVR," will automatically appear in the top menu bar.

Look for the DVR option in the main Fire TV menu. Connie Chen/Business Insider

You can browse what's currently on, what's coming up ahead, and a list of your recorded shows.

The days of channel-surfing are back with this familiar-looking guide of scheduled programming. Connie Chen/Business Insider

The app is also easy to navigate and record shows on. Whether you hit 'record' on your TV or phone, the recording will show up on both devices.

I loved being able to watch live and recorded shows from anywhere. Amazon Fire TV

There are two storage sizes of the unit available: the 500 GB, which can record up to two shows at once and store up to 75 hours of HD programming, and the 1 TB, which can record up to four shows at once and store up to 150 hours of HD programming.

The interface isn't perfect — for example, you can't search for channels and shows directly or schedule recordings through the app. Overall, however, the viewing and recording experience is reliable and strong enough that I can live with these small drawbacks. Hopefully, Amazon has plans to update these features to make the product even better.

In the meantime, you'll be able to watch the news and live events as they're happening, record the ones you can't catch live, favorite your most-watched local channels, and enjoy entertainment on your phone, all without paying a subscription.

Who should buy the Fire TV Recast? In short: Amazon and Fire TV fans who miss watching live, local TV.

Due to its seamless connection to the rest of the Amazon/Fire TV ecosystem, the Recast is a top option if you already own a Fire TV device. It's as intuitive to navigate and integrates with the existing menu and your Amazon account.

I'm usually the person who stands on the sidelines and offers the occasional, non-committal murmur of support as others sweat their way through tech set-up, but even I found the process of setting up and using the Recast easy. The $230 to $280 cost will be a one-time investment that pays for itself over time.

Get the Fire TV Recast, (500 GB, 75 hours) for $229.99 here

Get the Fire TV Recast, (1 TB, 150 hours) for $279.99 here

Get the Fire TV Recast (500 GB, 75 hours) bundle with Fire TV Stick 4K and an HD antenna for $249.97 here

Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 crashed minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport on Sunday. All 157 passengers and crew on board were killed.

It was the second crash in four months of a nearly brand-new Boeing 737 Max 8 airliner. In October, Lion Air Flight JT610 crashed in the Java Sea shortly after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia, killing all 189 people on board.

The Chinese, Ethiopian, and Indonesia government have grounded the 737 MAX aircraft operated by their domestic airlines.

Read more: The Boeing 737 Max plane, which has been involved in 2 deadly crashes in 5 months, is used by American Airlines, Southwest, and United. Here's how to find out if you're flying on one.

For now, the US Federal Aviation Administration is keeping tabs on the situation but has not yet taken direct action.

"The FAA continuously assesses and oversees the safety performance of U.S. commercial aircraft," the agency said in a statement. "If we identify an issue that affects safety, the FAA will take immediate and appropriate action."

In the US, Southwest, American, and United are the aircraft type's main operators. Southwest and American fly the 737 MAX 8 while United operates the larger 737 MAX 9.

"We have been in contact with Boeing and will continue to stay close to the investigation as it progresses," Southwest said in a statement to Business Insider. "We remain confident in the safety and airworthiness of our fleet of more than 750 Boeing aircraft."

"We don't have any changes planned to our operational policies or procedures," the Dallas-based airline added.

American and United both issued statements reaffirming their confidence in the safety of the aircraft and the ability of their crews to operate the plane.

Other major operators include Norwegian Air, which uses the aircraft for long-haul flights from Europe to North America and the Middle East.

"All of our Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are operating as normal and we are in close dialogue with Boeing and follow their and the aviation authorities' instructions and recommendations," Tomas Hesthammer, Norwegian's director of flight operations, said in a statement to Business Insider.

Norwegian also added that it introduced new training procedures for its 737 MAX pilots following the Lion Air crash.

Read more: Two Boeing 737 MAX airliners have crashed since October — here are the airlines that fly the plane.

According to Flight Global, roughly a third of the 371 Boeing 737 MAX jets in operation have been grounded. The vast majority of them, 97, fly with Chinese airlines. China is currently the aircraft's biggest customer. US airlines are number two with 72 aircraft in service.

Here's a closer look at the 12 airlines with the most Boeing 737 MAX jetliners:

"Harry Potter: Wizards Unite" is a new smartphone game for mobile devices, inspired by J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World.

Co-developed by WB Games and Niantic, the creators of "Pokémon Go," the new "Harry Potter" game features similar mechanics, and will let players follow their own magical adventure wherever they take their smartphone.

In "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite," players will take on the role of a new wizard recruit working with the Statute of Secrecy Task Force — the group responsible for solving the mystery of the Calamity, a major event that scattered magical artifacts and creatures all over the world.

Players will explore the real world searching for signs of magic, encountering iconic Harry Potter characters along the way.

While Business Insider's Matt Weinberger had a chance to try to the game at a private event, it's not ready for a global release just yet. Niantic has said "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite" will launch this year, but there's no specific time frame. Pokémon Go launched in July 2016, which let players in North America venture out into the summer weather to explore the game during its early months — perhaps "Wizards Unite" will repeat the trick?

Here's everything we know about "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite" so far:

Nginx (pronounced "engine-X"), the company behind the very popular open-source-web-server software of the same name, has been acquired by F5 Networks, a rival, which is valued at about $9.6 billion on the public market.

In a press release on Monday, F5 said that it plans to acquire all shares of Nginx in a deal that values the company at $670 million, "subject to certain adjustments," and that Nginx CEO Gus Robertson and the company's cofounders, Igor Sysoev and Maxim Konovalov, will all be staying on as employees of F5 after the acquisition closes.

While Nginx isn't the largest or most valuable software company, it's one of the startups that secretly runs the internet: The Nginx web server is the third most widely used in the world, behind only Microsoft and Apache and ahead of Google.

Well over half of the busiest websites in the world, including ones operated by McDonald's and Starbucks, rely on Nginx. Last year, Robertson told Business Insider that the company's business had seen 100% year-over-year growth every year since 2014, with companies coming to Nginx to help make their websites load faster and more efficiently.

The core Nginx web server is available as open source, meaning that anybody can download and use the code as they wish. In recent years, Nginx's main push to build the business has been Nginx Plus, a paid premium service that helps developers build modern applications for mega-clouds, such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

This is where F5 and Nginx became rivals — and also where a tie-up starts to make sense.

F5 helps companies make sure that their apps and software are both highly secure and highly performant, assisting with spotting and solving bottlenecks. Some of F5's products then competed head-to-head with Nginx and Nginx Plus.

Francois Locoh-Donou, CEO and president of F5 Networks, praises Nginx for its "leading software application delivery and API management solutions," as well as its "unparalleled credibility and brand recognition" and "massive open source user base" as factors that dovetail nicely with its business.

The Nginx brand will stick around, as will its headquarters in San Francisco, though plans are underway to introduce integrations with F5's other security and application-monitoring tools, the release said. Robertson will report directly to Locoh-Donou as part of F5's senior leadership team after the close.

In its lifespan, Nginx has raised $103 million from investors including Goldman Sachs, Telstra Ventures, and New Enterprise Associates, though we don't know the company's most recent private valuation.

In an interview with Business Insider after the announcement of the deal, Robertson said this all began with the discussion of a partnership between the two companies. Things snowballed after a business dinner with Locoh-Donou and blossomed into a full-on acquisition.

"We felt there were a lot of synergies," said Robertson, who also praised F5's base of 25,000 paying customers.

According to Locoh-Donou, the move represents a push for F5 from the data center, where it's been most successful, and into the cloud, where Nginx has a strong presence. Locoh-Donou said the goal is to help customers manage their apps, wherever they may be — their own servers, the cloud, or even across multiple clouds.

Francois Locoh-Donou, F5's CEO and president. F5 Networks

"There's no company today that offers application services across all those environments," Locoh-Donou said.

With Nginx, Locoh-Donou said, F5 gets access not only to its tech but also that goodwill it's built with open-source communities. To that point, Locoh-Donou said, expect the core Nginx software to continue as it has, same open-source license and all — but also expect Nginx and F5 to push harder, potentially into new markets, with new open-source projects.

In general, Locoh-Donou said, customers should anticipate that F5 won't be interfering with what Nginx has been doing, but that it rather plans on investing in accelerating it.

"Virtually everything Nginx has been doing is valuable to F5," Locoh-Donou said.

Facebook/Stitch Fix

Stitch Fix, an online personal styling service, surged 13.7% to $30.40 a share Monday evening after posting strong profits that more than doubled the Wall Street consensus. 

The company posted adjusted earnings of $0.12 a share, beating the $0.05 that analysts surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting. It netted $370 million of revenue, topping the $364.9 million that was expected.

“Since becoming a public company, we have posted six consecutive quarters of over 20% growth, which demonstrates our ability to drive consistent business performance," said Stitch Fix Founder and CEO Katrina Lake in a press release.

"I’m proud that we're now serving 3 million people across the U.S. and remain focused on delighting our existing clients and expanding our reach."

Shares were up 94% since going public in November 2017.

MI

AUSTIN, TEXAS — When Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger announced they were leaving the company last fall, multiple reports attributed it to them being upset about the loss of its autonomy within parent company Facebook.

But speaking at SXSW on Monday, Instagram co-founder and former CEO Kevin Systrom said that the loss of autonomy was, in a way, a testament to Instagram's growth and success.

"In some ways, there being less autonomy is a function of Instagram winning," Systrom said. "It's just an unavoidable thing if you're successful."

He added that Instagram could have remained a niche app for photographers. But it improved and got better and instead "got to a size where it was meaningfully important" to the company.

"You can choose: do you want to be unsuccessful and small and have all the autonomy in the world, or not?" he said.

Krieger agreed with his co-founder's views, saying that companies that succeed internally become so important to the acquiring company that it's "irresponsible" not to think about "the right models of integration."

When asked by moderator and TechCrunch editor-at-large Josh Constine how that loss of autonomy manifested itself, Systrom declined to offer more details.

"That's not a topic I'm interested in recounting in front of everyone," he said. "Honestly, it doesn't actually matter, because what matters is whether or not Instagram continues to succeed."

Bottomless’ smart scale

We are running the Venture Deals Online Course again. Registration is now open and it runs from April 7, 2019 – May 31, 2019. It’s produced by Kauffman Fellows Academy and Techstars.

We’ve run the course four times now and have had over 15,000 people take it. Both Jason and I make several guest appearances (online) and I always get lots of email (and try to respond to all of them) with questions during the course.

It’s free, although it’s recommended that you have a copy of our book Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist.

The course runs for seven weeks with the following syllabus.

If you are interested, sign up now and tell your friends who are interested in venture deals.