OpenAI

Creating safe AGI that benefits all of humanity

This article is part of a Brand Strategy column focused on uncovering the associations behind the world’s most disruptive brands. See all reviews

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OpenAI’s brand mission “To ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity” suggests altruistic motives behind their pursuit of AGI. It was was probably true when they were just a non-profit research lab. But I wonder if it still holds true.

I couldn't find a clear statement describing what OpenAI offers, so I pieced together one from three key pillars defined on the website: "Pioneering research on the path to AGI", "Transforming work and creativity with AI", and "Shaping the future of technology".

The Core Values are more akin to Brand Values, describing the culture and who they are as people – characterised by a certain reckless but passionate naivety that seems to define who they are and how they behave.

And what OpenAI defines as 'Brand Values' are no more than personality traits that define how the OpenAI brand should look, feel, and sound. They are meant to influence things like design, from the visual identity to the product experience.

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Brand Mission (Why we exist):

To ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.

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Core Values (Who we are):

AGI Focus
We are committed to building safe, beneficial AGI that will have a massive positive impact on humanity's future. Anything that doesn’t help with that is out of scope.

Intense and scrappy
Building something exceptional requires hard work (often on unglamorous stuff) and urgency; everything (that we choose to do) is important. Be unpretentious and do what works; find the best ideas wherever they come from.

Scale
We believe that scale—in our models, our systems, ourselves, our processes, and our ambitions—is magic. When in doubt, scale it up.

Make something people love
Our technology and products should have a transformatively positive effect on people’s lives.

Team spirit
Our biggest advances, and differentiation, come from effective collaboration in and across teams. Although our teams have increasingly different identities and priorities, the overall purpose and goals have to remain perfectly aligned. Nothing is someone else’s problem.

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Description (What we do):

OpenAI is shaping the future of technology through pioneering AI research and the development of AI products that revolutionize work and creativity, all for the greater good of humanity.

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Brand Values (How we express ourselves):

Gravitas
Reflects the seriousness of our commitment to safety. Intentional, solid, firm. 

Precision
Reflects the expertise, rigor, and excellence behind our work. Clarified, Exact, Orderly.

Approachable
Reflect our impact on humanity and all that we do to empower people. Open, Optimistic, Warm.

Allure
Reflects the wonder and awe in the technology and our messy, playful approach to discovery. Unexpected, Delightful, Mysterious.

Bold
Reflects the scale and scope of what we want to accomplish. Innovative, Groundbreaking, Novel.

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1. “About”, OpenAI, accessed February 8, 2023, https://www.openai.com/about

2. “Careers”, OpenAI, accessed February 8 2023, https://openai.com/careers

3. “Home”, OpenAI, accessed February 8, 2023, https://www.openai.com

4. Area 17, “OpenAI Brand Guidelines”, September 2022