Mission Confusion

OpenAI, the company that heralded the AI revolu­tion with the launch of ChatGPT, did one more side turn related to its own structure when it decided to continue with its owner being a non-profit, that didn’t have profit as its end objective. When it was first floated, the mis­sion of OpenAI was to lead humanity safely into the AI age; the bottomline was a secondary consideration. But then its CEO Sam Altman began to pivot it, first with having capped profits, and then increasingly into a conventional startup, the kind that spawned Facebook or Google. It gave the impression of wanting to move away from control by its non-profit body. There is now a rethink on it.

Altman posted on X: “4 facts about our structure: OpenAI will continue to be controlled by the current nonprofit; Our existing for-profit will become a Public Benefit Corporation; nonprofit will control & be a significant owner of the PBC; nonprofit & PBC will continue to have the same mission.”

It is confusing but that is the price of virtue signalling. A reason that Altman gives for the need to be profit-driven is the vast amounts of capital required to compete in the game. It just wasn’t possible unless those who gave the funds got a return on it. Only the expectancy of great profits would make investors part with extraordinary sums. To which the counter-argument would be—why do you have to compete? OpenAI could stick to its original mis­sion and let the Googles of the world play the profit game. It wanted to be part of this particular game and so needs those vast amounts. And it also wants the halo of being not driven by profits. For both to go together is not really tenable.

To chase profits is in some ways more virtuous because there is no scope for doublethink here. It clarifies one’s existence for all stakeholders and they move in tandem. To have an ideological mission in the marketplace is to see it inevitably getting corrupted. Because it can be interpreted or twisted as OpenAI itself has been doing. When it comes to profits, all that matters is efficiency and anything less is swiftly punished by the market itself.

casualtyclaritymarketOpenAIPublic Benefit CorporationSam Altman