It is possible to finally solve the question of OpenAI and its business plans, as well as intentions for the future AI. In an OpenAI’s CEO and cofounder Sam Altman, in an open letteroutlined plans for OpenAI to continue under the supervision of a non profit. The profit side of the company is also transitioning to Public Benefit Corporations (PBC).
The PCB is noteworthy because, while it still has a profit-making purpose, it also has a larger goal, which is to serve society. Altman wrote:
In a more practical sense, Altman wrote “We want to put incredible tools in the hands of everyone….We want to open source very capable models. We want to give our users a great deal of freedom in how we let them use our tools within broad boundaries, even if we don’t always share the same moral framework, and to let our users make decisions about the behavior of ChatGPT.”
Elon Musk, a former partner and co-founder of OpenAI, has sued OpenAI in recent years for abandoning its non-profit roots, and other have voiced concerns about OpenAI’s failure to open-source key models. Altman previously admitted he was a member of the Musk lost his case when he was on the wrong side of this argument.
OpenAI and Altman now seem to be moving the way Musk and open-source critics desire.
AI for the better
Altman’s change of heart comes after he admits that during the early days “we did not have a detailed sense for how we were going to accomplish our mission” that some OpenAI employees thought AI was “should only be in the hands of a few trusted people who could ‘handle it’.”
but now, with Artificial General Intelligence on the horizon is “We want to build a brain for the world and make it super easy for people to use for whatever they want,” wrote Altman.
OpenAI’s non profit will be “the largest and most effective nonprofit in history that will be focused on using AI to enable the highest-leverage outcomes for people.”
going forward.
Altman wants to develop “beneficial AGI” as well and emphasizes the importance of safety. Altman has come a long way “As AI accelerates, our commitment to safety grows stronger. We want to make sure democratic AI wins over authoritarian AI.”
since he was abruptly ousted by Ilya Sutskever (formerly OpenAI’s chief scientist and co-founder) in late 2023. He returned just a few days later. In the new letter, there’s an impression that AI and AGI will be bigger than one person, company, or AI like ChatGPT.
It is unclear what this means for the future of OpenAI ChatGPT and AGI. The PCB is focused on the public interest, but will still be interested to make a profit. Uncertain is how the non-profit overseer will affect that.
OpenAI said it would be talking with attorneys general in California and Delaware who helped it make this decision, as well as its biggest commercial partner Microsoft (Copilot’s bases models are GPT based) about the implementation of its plan. Altman wrote
“We believe this sets us up to continue to make rapid, safe progress and to put great AI in the hands of everyone,” .
We’ll see.
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A 38 year industry veteran and award winning journalistLance covered technology when PCs were the size and shape of suitcases, and “on line” was a synonym for “waiting”. He is a former Lifewire editor-in chief, Mashable editor-in-chief, and, prior to that, Editor-in Chief of PCMag.com, and Senior Vice President of content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote The Upgrade, a popular weekly tech column on Medium.
Lance Ulanoff (19459057) makes frequent appearances on local, national, and international news programs, including Good Morning America, Good Morning America the Today ShowCNBC, CNN, and BBC.
