The question of OpenAI, its business, and intentions for the future of AI may finally be solved. In an open letter, OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman outlined plans to keep OpenAI running under the oversight of a non-profit. What’s more, the profit side of the business is transitioning to a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC).
A PCB is notable because it means that while that portion of OpenAI will still be interested in making a profit, it will have a larger purpose, one that’s intended to serve the good of society.
In more practical terms, 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.”
In recent years, former partner and OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk has sued OpenAI for leaving its non-profit roots behind, and others have voiced concern about OpenAI not open-sourcing key models. Altman previously admitted that he was on the wrong side of that argument, and Musk eventually lost his case.
Now, though, OpenAI and Altman seem to be moving in the direction Musk and the open-source critics want.
AI for the good
The change of heart comes as Altman admits that in the early days, “we did not have a detailed sense for how we were going to accomplish our mission” and also admitted that some at OpenAI back then thought AI “should only be in the hands of a few trusted people who could ‘handle it’.”
The perspective now, though, especially as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is 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.
The go-forward plan is for OpenAI’s non-profit to be “the largest and most effective nonprofit in history that will be focused on using AI to enable the highest-leverage outcomes for people.”
Questions remain
Altman also wants to develop “beneficial AGI” and notes the importance of safety and alignment. “As AI accelerates, our commitment to safety grows stronger. We want to make sure democratic AI wins over authoritarian AI.”
Altman’s come quite a long way since he was suddenly ousted in late 2023 by, among others, Ilya Sutskever, formerly OpenAI’s Chief Scientist and co-founder. He returned just days later. There’s a sense in the new letter that AI and the coming AGI are bigger than one person, one company, and one AI like ChatGPT.
As for what this will mean for the future of OpenAI, ChatGPT, and AGI, it is unclear. The PCB may be focused on the public good, but it will still be interested in making a profit. How the non-profit overseer impacts that is unclear.
OpenAI says it will be talking to attorneys generals in California and Delaware, who helped it come to this decision, along with its biggest commercial partner, Microsoft (Copilot’s base models are GPT-based), about the implementation of its new plan.
“We believe this sets us up to continue to make rapid, safe progress and to put great AI in the hands of everyone,” wrote Altman.
We’ll see.
