Our principles

gigatexal

lol "principles" like Sam Altman has any ... All the major AI shops are out trying to be the king of the jungle -- I don't think there can be a market in the end for all of them to be worth 2T+ giants.

pton_xd

> We envision a world with widespread flourishing at a level that is currently difficult to imagine Help me imagine it, what are some examples of widespread flourishing we can look forward to?

dbvn

Newsflash: they're changing... again

Matl

Why even put this out? This is weeks after the whole Department of War thing, days after the article about Sam Altman being a pathological liar (as if we needed one). If the intention is to bury all that then I think it's going to have the exact opposite effect and make everyone remember.

jethronethro

Interesting how this was released on the eve of the Musk v. Altman trial ...

freshnode

Dystopian humblebrag gymnastics.

kelseyfrog

Glaring lack of, "We will not participate in the creation or operation of 'kill bots'." I can't believe it has to be said. Yet, here we are. Nice to haves include: "We will not participate in the use of AI for mass surveillance," and "We will not participate in the use of AI for (cyber-)warfare."

throwaw12

"Principles" of "Open" AI * This will change anytime we want, whether you agree or not * For employees who are following current "principles", when we change, if you are strict about principles, then please leave, we will hire new people

josh-sematic

I wonder how much money OpenAI has spent lobbying for alternative economic models research (or better—spent on such research themselves). Then compare that to how much they’ve spent lobbying to enable deploying this all as fast as possible. Those numbers will speak louder than any words on their principles.

KuSpa

> Here are the principles that guide our work. > 1. Democratization. We will resist the potential of this technology to consolidate power in the hands of the few. For example they could publish their models and research... instead of doing the opposite of what they claim being their very first principle.

ladax72707

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others!

wxw

> Power in the future can either be held by a small handful of companies using and controlling superintelligence, or it can be held in a decentralized way by people. We believe the latter is much better... Superintelligence aside, power in the present is already held by a small handful of companies, at least in the west. The principles are pretty good, vacuous though they may be.

transitivebs

was expecting this page to be blank...

aeternum

Remember this one of OpenAI's principles? > We are concerned about late-stage AGI development becoming a competitive race without time for adequate safety precautions. Therefore, if a value-aligned, safety-conscious project comes close to building AGI before we do, we commit to stop competing with and start assisting this project. We will work out specifics in case-by-case agreements, but a typical triggering condition might be “a better-than-even chance of success in the next two years.” What do people think is the probability that OpenAI would ever actually do this?

dbgrman

When a company writes down principles, you should be highly skeptical. - Democratization. Why is it your prerogative sam bro? In other words, what he means is consolidate access so "We" can democratize. We choose who gets what. - Empowerment. People are empowered by default. Its the totalitarians who curtail the empowerment. The fact that sam things he has the power to "empower" people is arrogant at best. People are empowered already, you just build the tools and make the tools accessible at a reasonable price. - Universal prosperity. This one pisses me off the most. Who TF made you the benevolent mayor of universe? Are you running for president of the universe and people ask: Hey sam, what would you do as a president of the universe? "I will bring universal prosperity".. yaaaay Sama for president. FFS! - Adaptability Yep. we'll kiss the ring of whoever is in power, until we get in power. then we will adapt if needed to your needs. You know who else has principles: Meta. ( https://www.meta.com/about/company-info/?srsltid=AfmBOooT6i0... ) - Give people a voice. Read: ensure you control their voice. My take: who tf are you to give anyone a voice? Everyone HAS a voice. - Build connection and community. Read: ensure that you control all the connections and communities so that you can steer elections and other important things. My take: people have been connecting already for thousands of years. - Serve everyone Read: control who you serve. My take: Serve everyone, except for totalitarian regimes and people with ideas that are not aligned with ours. etc. etc.

Teever

Why do companies put stuff like this out in 2026? Like who is the intended audience and what purpose does this serve? I can't imagine that this will have the same powerful effect that Google's 'don't be evil' stuff did all those years ago. People are just too cynical and have enough experience being burned by big tech companies. You might think that I'm speaking from a place of age and experience but I think this applies to everyone, young and old -- we're all using these devices and services from the cradle now it seems and we've all been burned by them or know someone who has been burned by them -- kids know the big tech rug pull just like they know they rug that they crawl on while sucking on a pacifier. So what's the point of this? Is the intended audience internal? Like is it just for the people who work at openai to distract them from the news the stories that they hear in the news about their companies and the stuff they hear people say about them in social gatherings before they admit that they work for openai?

smlacy

PRINCIPLES.md

dabedee

Here is the translated version: 1. Democratization is centralization. We will resist the potential of this technology to consolidate power in the hands of the few, by consolidating it in the hands of us, who are not few but correct. 2. Empowrment is compliance. We believe AGI can empower everyone to achieve the goals we have determined are worth achieving. 3. Prosperity is scarcity. We want a future where everyone can have an excellent life, which will require new economic models because the old ones will no longer function, for reasons unrelated to us. 4.Resilience is dependence. AGI will introduce new risks, which only AGI can solve, which only we can build. 5. Adaptability is revisionism. We continue to believe the only way to meet the challenges of an unpredictable future is to be prepared to update our positions, our charter, our nonprofit status, our safety commitments, our board, our cofounders, and our prior statements, all of which were operative at the time and are now inoperative and were never said.

piskov

Funny how true adherence to this is only with open-sourcing the models. And this won’t happen. So another “do no evil” bla-bla which will ultimately be dropped

ChrisArchitect

Related: Altman's 'beliefs' in his response to the moltov cocktail https://blog.samaltman.com/2279512 ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47724921 )