We will learn quickly and course-correct Sam Altman says this is OpenAIs future, but its not the one it started with

Date:
Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:53:14 +0000

Description:
OpenAI published a new document called Our Principles over the weekend, and
Im still not sure what its principles are after reading it.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member
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your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter OpenAI has just published a new document called Our Principles written by Sam Altman , and at first glance it reads like a simple corporate manifesto update. But the more I read it, the more I start to think that it isn't what it appears to be.

Something has definitely changed here, compared to OpenAIs previous statements, so lets unpack what it is. We can start by taking a look at what it is not saying, as well as what it is saying. The race of AGI is it still happening? For a start, the post is very deliberately credited to Sam Altman, as if its something of a personal mission statement, which made me want to compare it to his previous blogs on AI. Article continues below You may like Sam Altman issues stark warning as $1 billion plan is revealed Sam Altman urges Anthropic and the Pentagon to 'find a way to work together' Sam Altmans chaotic weekend of backlash and threats

What immediately struck me as curious about the new principles document, compared to his old blogs, is the lack of reference to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Achieving AGI for the benefit of humanity was, after all, the whole goal of creating OpenAI in the first place, but it is only
mentioned in passing a few times in the new document. It seems to have been replaced by talking about broader AI deployment instead.

Eleven months ago, Altman was talking in much stronger terms about AGI in his personal blog : We are past the event horizon;, he wrote, the takeoff has started. Humanity is close to building digital superintelligence, and at
least so far its much less weird than it seems like it should be.

Reading it back now it sounds like AGI was about to happen at any moment. Compared to the latest document, the language has softened significantly. If the takeoff had started, it seems the AGI rocket is still on the landing pad. AI: The risks vs the rewards While the broader benefits of AI are stressed a lot of the things weve only let ourselves dream about in sci-fi could become reality, Altman says theres also the acknowledgement that these good
outcomes arent guaranteed. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from
us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

Power in the future can either be held by a small handful of companies using and controlling superintelligence, or it can be held in a decentralized way
by people, Altman says. We believe the latter is much better, and our goal is to put truly general AI in the hands of as many people as possible.

Later the document raises more of the dangers of AI, particularly regarding pathogens:

"No AI lab can ensure a good future alone. For an obvious example, there may be extremely capable models that make it easier to create a new pathogen, and we need a society-wide approach to defend against this with pathogen-agnostic countermeasures. What to read next 'Companies that are not set up to quickly adopt AI workers will be at a huge disadvantage': OpenAI Sam Altman warns firms not to fall behind on AI - but notes 'its going to take a lot of work and some risk' Anthropic drops its defining safety pledge OpenAI takes steps to reduce teaser-style phrasing in ChatGPT responses

I was left wondering whether to be excited or scared for the future. And that feeling of contradiction started to increase the more I read... Competitive spirit While the document initially reads as collaborative, and there is a
lot of talk about getting AI into the hands of everyone: We want a future where everyone can have an excellent life, Altman says, the question I have
is how that happens.

Altman is talking about distribution, and in practice that usually means shipping faster, integrating it into more products and reaching more users all things which define competition in tech. For that to happen in practice, it feels like OpenAI is going to have to become more competitive than it already is.

And when Altman says later, We will learn quickly and course-correct, he
means shipping, learning, improving and repeating, which sits uneasily next
to the new documents heavy safety framing.

Even when he says We deserve an enormous amount of scrutiny it sounds humble on the surface, but strategically its perhaps more about OpenAI's willingness to justify decisions publicly. Its the kind of language companies tend to use when theyre under increasing scrutiny.

In fact, the more I read the whole document, the more it starts to sound contradictory. Safety implies restraint and deliberation while scale implies speed and iteration.

After reading the document Im still not entirely sure what OpenAIs principles actually are. Principles should be clear and emphatic, while this document feels softer and more flexible, giving OpenAI more room for maneuver than it had before.

Its hard not to think of the famous quote by Groucho Marx Those are my principles, and if you dont like them well, I have others. Follow TechRadar
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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/openai/we-will-learn-quickly -and-course-correct-sam-altman-says-this-is-openais-future-but-its-not-the-one -it-started-with


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