Analyzing the Symbiosis: A Lighthearted Look at OpenAI’s Alliance with the Government – The WIRED narrative
“WIRED Roundup: Unpacking OpenAI’s Government Partnership”
“When OpenAI was formed in 2015, it was ostensibly a nonprofit — with a focus on ensuring that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits everyone and doesn’t harm humanity or concentrate power unduly. However, today it’s both a for-profit (OpenAI LP) and non-profit (OpenAI Inc) entity, and it recently singed a controversial partnership with the US government.”
In the grand stage of technological innovation, welcome OpenAI, an institute once clear cut as a non-profit, now playing the roles of both a non-profit entity (OpenAI Inc) and a profit-chasing company (OpenAI LP). As interesting as this duality goes, the fun doesn’t stop there. Recently, news broke out about the institute dancing to the tune of a new partnership with — drumroll please — the US Government. Now, who didn’t see that coming?
Heaven forbid, but apparently OpenAI had a mission once upon a time. A high and mighty one at that: to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) is universally beneficial and doesn’t somehow lead to human extinction or cauliflower-brain-world-dominating scenarios. However, it seems fate and “business needs” took a turn down a different lane, taking OpenAI right along.
Naturally, this partnership has stirred quite the controversial chatter amongst tech enthusiasts and experts. And why wouldn’t it? A non-profit gone profit-making, that’s now in bed with the folks in Washington — it’s like watching a primetime soap opera. Question on everyone’s lips: Does this mean OpenAI’s initial promise about AGI’s universal benefit is heading towards the exit sign, with ‘undue power concentration’ waiting just around the corner?
But let’s not be hasty to lift our pitchforks. As OpenAI gleefully pointed out, this supposed sinister partnership might just be a case of strange bedfellows uniting for a common cause. Perhaps, they’re just trying to defend the realm against tech supremacy from the other side of the globe. Which essentially means they’re still working toward that original noble cause, but just chose a fancy new approach and partner. Surely, there’s no harm in that, right?
Fasten your seatbelts, folks. The final act is yet to come. Whether OpenAI steers clear of exploiting AGI, or ends up chucking its ‘for the greater good’ playbook and diving in for a selfish power play — only time will tell. So, just get some popcorn and watch as OpenAI’s enthralling saga unfolds.