Examples:
* Aon insurance - At Aon, we exist to shape decisions for the better — to protect and enrich the lives of people around the world.
* Nike - Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world
* Glencore - Responsibly sourcing the commodities that advance everyday life
I don't really see any difference with OpenAI, beyond their name including some fluffy sounding loveliness.
If you read the article openai says that they are not in for the money and then proceed to be in for the money. Also, Ilya says to not change anything because it will hurt recruitment.
Their reasoning is that not only are those things not mutually exclusive; it would have been impossible to achieve that mission without the capped-profit pivot. Which is pretty obviously true (and by Elon Musk's admission, "0% chance"). I don't think anyone could have had the foresight in 2015 that Chinchilla scaling laws would necessitate multiple billions of dollars. Like, everyone knew scaling was important, but not to the point that you could easily divine that a pure nonprofit would guarantee failure.
I also don't get the exaggerated anger at "hypocrisy" (or what some would call "changing ones mind"). If they renamed to XYZ AI, does that make them any better or worse than xAI or Anthropic on whatever measure you care about? They are yet another closed AI company. Ok? If being closed AI is evil, then one should be equally angry at their equivalently closed competitors. If being closed AI is not evil, then one should not be so angry at the alleged hypocrisy. My point is, hypocrites doing evil things are about as bad as non-hypocrites doing the equivalent evil thing, which means the disparate emotional reactions we're seeing are unreasonable.
I cannot think of a single example of any company or entity that has been lauded after experiencing hypergrowth, regardless of the value of these entities provide to humanity, which becomes normalized and thus taken for granted in the public conscience.
I think it is in human nature to simply hate on anything that is more successful than ourselves. Perhaps it is jealousy, insecurity, pessimism, or something else. People will try to rationalize their hatred of <entity> but the trend is clear. There is literally nothing you can do as such an entity to consistently gain and keep the mob's goodwill.
It does not matter how many free services you provide, how much further you have pushed humanity forward, how many billions have come to rely on or even enjoy what you have made - all these are taken for granted (perhaps a testament to your success), and all you are left with is dissatisfaction/hatred from the public.
This is just a sad fact of human nature. See: tall poppy syndrome, negativity bias, expectation inflation, and the general impossibility of consistently maintaining widescale goodwill.
and billions of dollars, and the hero-worship of people that will excuse literally anything you did to get there...
Again, maintaining goodwill at scale for long periods of time is simply not possible. People will end up taking what you contribute for granted and find something to get angry about.
After all, nobody ever criticises unsuccessful companies.
Is it perhaps due to the fact that large-scale success is usually enabled by large-scale exploitation? America is a good example of an entity that was lauded after hypergrowth, but only after denouncing the autocracy that made it.
Perhaps more companies would be lauded if they denounced the horrible practices that put them on the map. At least, it would make it easier to rationalize their behavior in the face of their progress.
> It does not matter how many free services you provide, how much further you have pushed humanity forward, how many billions have come to rely on or even enjoy what you have made
It quite literally, doesn't. If you do any of these things while disrespecting hierarchical order or offending human judgement, you will be reprimanded. If humanity stood for nothing, we'd all fall for everything.
For example, war tends to increase the distribution of free services, pushes humanity forward and makes even more people reliant on you. The continued manufacture of war is an enemy to the sanctity of human life and the preservation of order. Every single government primarily exists to regulate the waging of warfare and ensure the stability of it's constituent population.
But not everything that causes moral outrage is worthy. There are many taboos I support. The taboo against war is one of them. But witch hunts? Superstition? Being morally outraged at attempts to remove slavery? Humans are social creatures that are easily manipulated, for good or bad, by the amoral and conveniently self-serving narratives that run roughshod through our culture. These narratives and our responses to them aren't something to worship at an altar. They're something to side-eye with skepticism. Cherish the ones that are useful, and reject the ones that aren't.