OpenAI scrapped a promise to disclose key documents to the public

Unsurprising but disappointing none-the-less. Let’s just try to learn from it.

It’s popular in the AI space to claim altruism and openness; OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI (the new Musk one) all have a funky governance structure because they want to be a public good. The challenge is once any of these (or others) start to gain enough traction that they are seen as having a good chance at reaping billions in profits things change.

And it’s not just AI companies and this isn’t new. This is art of human nature and will always be.

We should be putting more emphasis and attention on truly open AI models (open training data, training source code & hyperparameters, model source code, weights) so the benefits of AI accrue to the public and not just a few companies.

[edit - eliminated specific company mentions]

It isn't just money, though. Every leading AI lab is also terrified that another lab will beat them to [impossible-to-specify threshold for AGI], which provides additional incentive to keep their research secret.

But isn't that fear of having someone else get there first just a fear that they won't be able to maximize their profit if that happens? Otherwise, why would they be so worried about it?

"Fusion is 25/10/5 years away"

"string theory breakthrough to unify relativity and quantium mechanics"

"The future will have flying cars and robots helping in the kitchen by 2000"

"Agi is going to happen 'soon'"

We got a rocket that landed like it was out of a 1950's black and white B movie... and this time without strings. We got Star Trek communicators. The rest of it is fantasy and wishful thinking that never quite manages to show up...

Lacking a fundamental undemanding of what is holding you back from having the breakthrough, means you're never going to have the breakthrough.

Credit to the AI folks, they have produced insights and breakthroughs and usable "stuff" unlike the string theory nerds.