OpenAI’s New Push for Democratic AI: Another Marketing Gimmick?

Key Takeaways

• OpenAI has introduced OpenAI for Countries' to help other nations develop their own data centers and customized ChatGPT solutions.
• This is part of the company's $500B Stargate project, which focuses on AI development in the US.
• OpenAI has focused a lot on the development of democratic AI across the globe, but we believe it's worth digging into its intent behind the project.

OpenAI has introduced OpenAI for Countries,' a new initiative aimed at fostering democratic AI infrastructure worldwide. Through this program, OpenAI will partner with governments to enhance local data center capabilities, empowering nations to harness data responsibly and fully comply with democratic standards.

The AI giant also plans to develop and provide customized ChatGPTs to various countries, which will help improve education and healthcare.

These AI products will be customized per a particular country's needs and will also be available in local languages for easy accessibility. With this, OpenAI plans to seed a healthy national AI ecosystem,' which creates jobs and revenue in countries worldwide. For the initial part of the project, OpenAI plans to pursue 10 such partner countries.

Focus on Democratic AI

Interestingly, in its blog post, OpenAI has focused a lot on the democratic development of AI worldwide. The firm defines democratic AI as technology that aligns with a country's democratic vision and values, such as fairness, accountability, transparency, and inclusion.

In other words, a technology as powerful as artificial intelligence should not be controlled by a few corporations or the government. If a few autocratic corporations or governments come to regulate AI, they may use it to control information and as tools for manipulation, misinformation, and even surveillance.

That's why the people must have a say in developing AI products so that they can build AI by the people, of the people, and for the people.' OpenAI wants to achieve that with its new OpenAI for Countries.'

What's in It for OpenAI?

By launching OpenAI for Countries,' the company strengthens its global presence and establishes a key role in shaping the future of AI governance.

This collaboration with national governments allows OpenAI to expand its infrastructure, ensure compliance with regional data laws, and solidify its leadership in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

Moreover, the initiative opens doors to new partnerships and market opportunities, positioning OpenAI as a trusted partner for countries navigating the complexities of AI integration.

The AI giant also plans to develop and provide customized ChatGPTs to various countries, which will help improve education and healthcare.

These AI products will be customised as per the needs of a particular country and will also be available in local languages for easy accessibility.

With this, OpenAI plans to seed a healthy national AI ecosystem," which creates jobs and revenue in a country. For the initial part of the project, OpenAI plans to pursue 10 such partner countries.

Increasing Global Pressure

OpenAI may be feeling the heat of increasing global competition and the deglobalization of artificial intelligence.

Mistral AI is a great example. This French startup launched Le Chat Enterprise, an AI assistant specifically built for enterprise use. Using this, enterprises can build a complete searchable knowledge base by connecting various platforms, such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Google Calendar, Gmail, and SharePoint.

The assistant also shows quick preview files with auto summaries and improved personalized answers. You can also build custom AI agents and connect with your enterprise libraries and apps without any coding.

This unlocks a new degree of customizability among enterprise users with complete control over implementation. Le Chat Enterprise is also privacy-friendly and can be deployed on the private cloud with strict ACL adherence.

Moreover, Le Chat Enterprise is built on the Mistral Medium 3 model, which performs better than ChatGPT's 4-o models. It beats ChatGPT on various parameters, such as coding, instruction following, math knowledge, and long context.

The best part is that the model delivers such performance at a cost of just $0.4 per million input tokens as compared to ChatGPT's $10 per 1 million input tokens. Just 4% of the cost of ChatGPT.

Remember, not long back, DeepSeek shook the entire US AI industry by building an AI model at just a fraction of the cost of ChatGPT. It shattered the myth that AI models must be expensive and require trillions of dollars of investment. And now, we're increasingly seeing AI models costing less than ChatGPT and offering at-par performance.

No wonder OpenAI is worried and wants to expand to other global locations before companies like Mistral AI or DeepSeek get there.

The Nice Guys' Gimmick

We have a question: Why is OpenAI the guardian of AI, and why does it think it has the authority to decide what other countries should do with AI tech?

Isn't the fact that a single company is trying to control artificial intelligence applications anti-democratic in itself? While no one wants AI to turn evil in the hands of anyone, should we just assume that OpenAI isn't the company that may turn artificial intelligence into a weapon?

After all, Sam Altman's Tools for Humanity' project scanned millions of people's eyes in exchange for just some fugazi' cryptocurrency, which may or may not bring any real wealth. Even if it does, the fact that a single corporation has the personal iris scans of millions is pretty bone-chilling.

What's more, it was OpenAI that used Scarlett Johansson's voice for ChatGPT's voice, even though she expressly denied permission. And let's not forget that Altman turned a non-profit organization into a for-profit one at the cost of losing top OpenAI executives.

• Dario Amodei, the former VP of research, left OpenAI because they shifted away from their initial mission of developing a safe and ethical AI.'
• Tom Brown, former engineering lead, also left the company for similar reasons.
• Jack Clark, former policy director, left because the company's culture was becoming less open and receptive to critical risk discussions.
• More famously, Jan Leike, who co-led the company's Superalignment team, resigned in May 2024 upon disagreement with the company's core priorities and safety guardrails around AGI.

There are other examples, where employees have left OpenAI because it was (and maybe is) overlooking safety while developing AI products.

Ironically, people have left OpenAI because the company has become less democratic and more authoritarian. So, it's pretty easy to see why we think that OpenAI speaking about the democratic development of AI could be a marketing gimmick.

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