The document is the company’s recommendation for governance that “keep(s) people first” as the technology “moves towards super-intelligence”.
It gets out ahead of some criticisms lobbed at the company, even acknowledging that OpenAI has disproportionate control of the industry.
The document addresses issues like AI related job loss, and proposes tax reforms to fund public benefits that would be affected like snap and
Medi-Cal.
The proposal recommends centralizing retirement benefits, a four day workweek, and a public wealth fund that gives citizens a stake in and returns from investments in AI.
OpenAI concurrently announced fellowships and research grants of up to $100,000 and up to $1 million in API credits for work for work that builds on ideas put forth in the proposal.
This level of accountability and foresight appears on the surface to be a strong framework for policy but Eryk Salvaggio of Tech Policy Press is calling it a ‘policymercial’.
Salvaggio writes, “A close reading of the document reveals the contradictions at the heart of OpenAI’s purported commitment to the public interest and its rapacious corporate appetite for capital and global domination.”
Additionally, this proposal comes as Open AI pushes an Illinois bill that would insulate AI developers against legal responsibility for harm caused by their products.