OpenAI publishes 'Our principles'
The document replaced the 2018 charter's pledge to stop building AGI if a rival got there more safely, reframing OpenAI's mission around broad access rather than a race to a finish line.
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OpenAI published “Our principles,” a restatement of the values it said would guide the company as its models grew more capable, organised around democratisation, empowerment, universal prosperity, resilience and adaptability. Coverage noted the document dropped a specific commitment from OpenAI’s 2018 charter: to stop competing with, and instead assist, any other project that came close to building AGI more safely — replaced with language about helping society absorb each successive level of AI capability.
Our mission is to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity.
Sam Altman said the shift reflected a concern that framing AGI as a singular, decisive prize gave the idea a “ring of power” that made people behave irrationally, and argued broad distribution of the technology, rather than a race to reach it first, was the safer course.