OpenAI's biggest outside investor is Microsoft, which obviously has a strong profit motive and a lot of commercial focus.Conflicts of interest can arise when an AI research lab is closely affiliated with a large profit-making entity. And, indeed, the affiliation of OpenAI with Microsoft has led to some public disquiet.
It is worth considering that OpenAI might be an exception in the field of AI. It may be that most AI labs will eventually come to be closely affiliated with big profitable concerns.
The challenge here is to find a way to channel scarce AI resources to ethical and safety-conscious organizations and projects, and away from mere copying, worker exploitation and surveillance capitalism.Are we up to that challenge?We had all better hope so, because as the race to develop AI accelerates, how we decide to structure it will be a determining factor in how much of humanity's future we turn out to control.