Ask HN: Why is OpenAI still called OpenAI?

Because it's a good name, and names are brands, not some legal commitment to anyone's intepretation of what the company does.

Apple don't sell produce, Tesla have nothing to do with the Serbian-American inventor, Amazon aren't related to the river, and the Walt Disney company kept his name after he died.

The same reason North Korea is officially called the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea". If you're not going to walk the talk, you can still get some good PR from an "aspirational" name. You'd think that people would be wise to this strategy after so many Definitely Not Evil groups turned out to actually be evil, but every year brings a new cohort of gullibles into the world.

Probably because it's a recognizable name, and the overwhelming majority of users don't seem to notice or care.

So... business purposes. I love FOSS and see the irony just as clearly as anyone else, but it's kinda pointless to highlight supposed hypocrisy from the name alone. It would be stupid to get mad at Alphabet for not inventing new letters or Apple for not breeding new fruits. Yes, the name implies something that it's not. Outside of the fairly limited (and clearly unrelated) context of Open Source though, it doesn't seem like their name correlates to much of anything.

Long-term, it wouldn't surprise me if they go all-in on the ChatGPT name and switch OpenAI to something more suit-and-tie. I'm sure they're in no hurry, though.

The same reason politicians name the most toxic and disgusting bills the “Protect the Children Act”.

Why is "Federal Express" called federal if it's not part of the government?

You don't see anyone here going "OpenText" isn't actually open, how dare they name their business that, they need to change.

Open doesn't mean anything, never has never did. It's not a protected name, like "Engineer" is in some locations restricting its use.

OpenAI is just the case of inevitable betrayal that occurred the moment they got a money making plan going.

A friend of mine started a window washing business. We'll call it "Willy's Windows". He had a great reputation and the business reflected his name. He sold the business, and the new owner kept "Willy's Windows" because it already had a reputation attached to it. And that's your answer. Even through Acquisitions, major company changes and refactoring, a name carries a reputation. And when it's a good one, they keep it, even if it means nothing in their new state.

other commenters said it best but... chatgpt is available to all and its free (gpt3.5 anyway) so they can still argue its "open" in some way. Consider the alternative where chatgpt is only for ceo's of megacorps or 3.5 is a paid plan. "Open" doesnt have to mean Open Source.

Company names often don’t mean anything at all, they’re just a pointer to the corporate entity. Think of it like “Google” or “Exxon” or similar, doesn’t matter what it means just what it points to. It just needs to be distinct and not confused with some other entity.

Because company names and slogans are often misleading.

Because names don't really have to mean anything.

There's also "OpenVMS" and "The Open Group"

The same reason as the online safety bill, or Tony Blair being the Middle East peace envoy.

It is just branding.

Because you can name your company anything you want.

(as long as it isn't already trademarked, anyway)

Because, unlike Meta and Alphabet of the time, they were the first to give us access to this secret technology. They threw open the doors and the other guys had to follow, and Meta eventually went farther. But they opened the doors. Seems fine to me.