OpenAI Quietly Updates Core Values: Emphasizing Focus on AGI
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OpenAI has quietly updated its core values on the company recruitment page. An Internet Archive snapshot from September 25 reveals that OpenAI's original core values included traits such as "Audacious," "Thoughtful," "Unpretentious," "Impact-driven," "Collaborative," and "Growth-oriented."
According to the archive, these original core values had been in use since at least January 2022.
OpenAI's new core values are now "Focus on AGI," "Intense and scrappy," "Scale," "Build something lovable," and "Team spirit," as displayed on the company's recruitment page. It is unclear when this change occurred.
Some of the old core values appear to have been integrated into the new ones, while others lack clear replacements.
"Unpretentious" now appears under "Intense and scrappy," while "Collaborative" has been relisted as "Team spirit."
There is no explicit replacement for "thoughtfulness" on OpenAI's recruitment page. The company's career page previously stated: "We carefully consider the outcomes of our work and welcome diverse thinking." While OpenAI still highlights its commitment to diversity and inclusion on the recruitment page, it no longer lists these as core values.
Meanwhile, OpenAI's new core value "Focus on AGI" refers to Artificial General Intelligence - a form of AI capable of understanding, learning, and performing any intellectual task that humans can do.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told The New Yorker in September: "To me, AGI... is the equivalent of an average, median human co-worker you could hire."
Experts remain divided on AGI's feasibility and timeline. Geoffrey Hinton, often called the godfather of AI, estimates it may take 20 years to develop AGI.
Founded in 2015 by former Y Combinator president Sam Altman and tech billionaire Elon Musk (who later parted ways with the company after three years), OpenAI is now led by Altman and reportedly aims to achieve $1 billion in revenue by August 2024, according to The Information. In January, Microsoft confirmed an additional $10 billion investment in the AI company.