Since its establishment,OpenAIAs an artificial intelligence startup, it has always been characterized by the principles of openness and transparency and has promised to open its internal documents to the public. However, recent personnel changes have triggered a series of changes, and OpenAI's transparency seems to be declining. Wired magazine once requested access to these documents, but was unexpectedly rejected.
OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Elon Musk and other tech giants as a non-profit research laboratory. Its original intention was to allow society and the public to participate in the development of powerful artificial intelligence and break the closed model of technology giants. However, when Wired magazine asked OpenAI to provide copies of its management documents, financial statements and conflict of interest rules last month, it was unexpectedly rejected.
In response to Wired’s request, OpenAI provided a sparse financial statement but no other internal documents. The company said, “Since 2022, OpenAI’s practices have aligned with industry standards and no longer publicly share additional internal documents.” This marks a change in OpenAI’s transparency principles.
Last November, OpenAI underwent a personnel change, firing and then rehiring CEO Sam Altman, sparking an internal crisis at the company. The change led to the new board promising structural reforms and a review of the company's problems. However, the decline in transparency principles seems to have made some key information within the company difficult to understand from the outside world.
OpenAI's nonprofit board retains final decision-making authority in managing the company's activities and technology, but the change in transparency has raised questions. The company has gradually relaxed its openness policy in recent years, especially after establishing a for-profit subsidiary to attract external investment. At the same time, the nonprofit part of the company has received little public support and lacks the motivation to be more transparent.
The decision to refuse to open internal documents to the public may make it more difficult to reveal key information about OpenAI's inner workings and personnel changes, which has also raised some concerns about the company's transparency and governance structure.