From space to telecommunications, the US has a long history of fostering technology for the public good. These AI models could be aligned to democratic values, not corporate profits
OpenAI, and then Anthropic, were each formed by AI developers who feared unrestrained corporate AI development – specifically, that companies like Google and Meta would steer the technology towards deleterious, maybe even catastrophically unsafe, outcomes for society. Their founders proclaimed that their new labs, uniquely, could be trusted to develop the technology in humanity’s best interest. But each, in turn, were themselves co-opted by the same market incentives, themselves becoming corporate behemoths zealously guarding future investor value rather than the public interest.
It was only a few weeks ago, in June, when OpenAI and Anthropic each , or redistribute their revenues to produce a
