Part 9/17:
OpenAI’s founders initially envisioned an open, nonprofit organization to avoid profit-driven pressures, aiming to collaboratively develop safe AI. However, within a few years, the focus shifted toward scaling up models—adding more compute, data, and parameters—to leap toward AGI. This pivot led to OpenAI becoming a quasi-capitalist enterprise valued at hundreds of billions, driven by the tantalizing prospect of monopoly over a transformative technology.