{"id":38683,"date":"2023-03-03T16:36:54","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T21:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=38683"},"modified":"2024-12-17T09:16:55","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T14:16:55","slug":"openai-is-today-unrecognizable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/03\/openai-is-today-unrecognizable\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI Is Today Unrecognizable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chloe Xiang<\/a> (via Hacker News<\/a>)::<\/p>\n

This blog post and OpenAI’s recent actions—all happening at the peak of the ChatGPT hype cycle—is a reminder of how much OpenAI’s tone and mission have changed from its founding, when it was exclusively a nonprofit. While the firm has always looked toward a future where AGI exists, it was founded on commitments including not seeking profits and even freely sharing code it develops, which today are nowhere to be seen.<\/p>

OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research organization by Altman, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, among other tech leaders. In its founding statement<\/a>, the company declared its commitment to research “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.” The blog stated that “since our research is free from financial obligations, we can better focus on a positive human impact,” and that all researchers would be encouraged to share “papers, blog posts, or code, and our patents (if any) will be shared with the world.” <\/p>

[…]<\/p>

By March 2019, OpenAI shed its non-profit status and set up a “capped profit” sector<\/a>, in which the company could now receive investments and would provide investors with profit capped at 100 times their investment. The company’s decision was likely a result of its desire to compete with Big Tech rivals like Google<\/a> and ended up receiving a $1 billion investment<\/a> shortly after from Microsoft.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n