Introducing OpenAI

Key ideas

Brockman and Sutskever announce OpenAI as a non-profit built to benefit humanity over shareholders, openly stating the uncertainty, the risks and the structure they think the goal needs.

1. 1

   Choose a structure that fits the goal

   Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever present OpenAI as a non-profit whose research is free of financial obligations, which they say lets it focus better on positive human impact. They state the aim as building value for everyone rather than for shareholders.

2. 2

   Say plainly what you do not know

   Brockman and Sutskever write that the outcome is uncertain and the work difficult, and that AI's surprising history makes it hard to predict when human-level AI might come within reach. They stand by the goal and structure anyway, and hope that is what matters most to the best people in the field.

3. 3

   State the upside and the danger

   The authors say it seems narrow systems will keep gaining ground and, in the extreme case, reach human performance on virtually every intellectual task, with benefit and damage both hard to gauge. That is their case for a leading research institution that can put a good outcome for all ahead of its own self-interest.

4. 4

   Make openness part of the plan

   Brockman and Sutskever say researchers will be strongly encouraged to publish, that any patents will be shared with the world, and that they will collaborate freely across institutions. They also expect to work with companies to research and deploy new technologies.

5. 5

   Commitments far larger than near-term spending

   The post names the founding team, advisors and funders, and reports $1 billion in commitments. The authors expect to spend only a tiny fraction of that in the next few years.

In Ilya’s words

What’s available here

• Original source

  Linked. Opens on the publisher’s site.

• Player on this page

  Not applicable. Written piece; nothing to play.

• Full text or transcript

  Not reviewed. No license to show a text version here.

• Our summary

  Draft. Written by us with AI from the full public text and checked against it; quotes are word for word. Not yet rights-reviewed.

• Ask questions with AI

  Not reviewed. Off until there is licensed text to work from.