Introduction
OpenAI is the ambitious research and development project launched by technology entrepreneur, Elon Musk. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities in a responsible and beneficial manner. OpenAI plans to use the AI technologies developed from the initiative to tackle grand challenges, such as advancing healthcare, alleviating poverty, and improving education. Since its formation in 2015, OpenAI has gathered a wealth of research and development in the field, along with a large network of collaborators, and access to significant computational resources.
Vision
OpenAI pursues responsible and ethical use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Musk and OpenAI share common objectives, such as optimizing the safety of technology use, reducing the cost of democratization of access potential of AI, and to accelerate the development of a general artificial intelligence that can surpass any human ability.
OpenAI’s ambition is bigger than just creating AI technology. They aim to promote the responsible use of AI and to create predictive AI tools that can anticipate potential problems, as well as prepare society for both the good and bad outcomes of AI usage.
Team
OpenAI is lead by an experienced team of AI experts from various areas of the AI and machine learning industry. The team is chaired by Tesla Chairman and CEO Elon Musk, who serves as OpenAI’s Chief Product Officer. Several prominent figures from the industry, including Google’s Research Director Peter Norvig, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Microsoft Corporate Vice President emeritus Eric Wiesner and AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li also form part of OpenAI’s leadership team.
The team is supported by a a number of investors, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Y Combinator and many more.
Research and Development
OpenAI pursues a wide range of projects to advance AI technology and related applications. Their research focuses on areas such as machine learning, AI safety, artificial general intelligence, robotics, and natural language processing. OpenAI also has a research laboratory and is involved in commercial research and development initiatives.
OpenAI has several publicly available datasets, resources and tools, such as the OpenAI Gym and the OpenAI Universe. These tools allow for the development of AI algorithms and machine learning models, as well as afford opportunities for robotic and AI controllers to learn through re-enactment, imitation and reinforcement learning.
Challenges
OpenAI, like any other AI project, is not without difficulties. For example, as the organization pursues safety and ethical development of AI technology and applications, there is often a trade off between achieving economical development and ensuring the technology is safe for use. This presents a challenge for OpenAI, and for other AI initiatives, to consider the economic and ethical implications of the technology produced.
OpenAI also faces a challenge in the area of research and development. As AI continues to evolve, and new opportunities arise, the organization must remain agile and responsive to uncover and capitalise on potential opportunities. This may require significantly increased resources to achieve, which are not always available or feasible.
Collaborations
As part of its research and development efforts, OpenAI partners with several notable organizations. These collaborations allows OpenAI to leverage existing resources and expertise while also creating potential pathways for further technological advancement. Areas of collaboration include the development of autonomous vehicles, personal assistant software and AI toolkits.
OpenAI’s relationship with Microsoft is of particular importance due to their shared research and development strengths. Microsoft provides OpenAI with access to its vast array of computing resources and AI toolkits, which helps accelerate OpenAI’s research objectives. In exchange, OpenAI gives Microsoft access to the research it gains from its experiments and offers training in AI theory and development.
