February 13, 2026
Mission: Abridged
The evolution of OpenAI's mission statement
From open vows to a one‑liner as the internet cries bait‑and‑switch
TLDR: OpenAI’s nonprofit mission statement shrank to a one‑liner about AGI “benefiting all humanity,” dropping past mentions of safety and not chasing profits. Commenters split between cynics calling it a bait‑and‑switch and pragmatists citing small open releases, with donors warning that in nonprofits, the exact wording really counts.
OpenAI’s nonprofit mission just went on a crash diet—and the internet is side‑eyeing hard. A time‑capsule of IRS filings shows a long, idealistic 2016 pledge about openness, safety, and “no need to generate financial return” slimming year by year until 2024’s single line: “ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity.” No “safety.” No nod to avoiding profit pressure. Commenters smelled a pivot. One summed it up as classic big‑company behavior: lock people in, then change the fine print.
Not everyone piled on. Some pointed out OpenAI’s recent gpt‑oss releases—open‑style models—saying they “won back a little bit” of openness, if they actually keep those updated. The donor crowd chimed in with a PSA: read the mission before you give; in the nonprofit world, those words matter legally. Meta‑drama broke out too: a “Dup” link with 100+ comments showed this fight isn’t new, while another user squinted at the timeline: “Was this before GPT‑3?”—cue the internet collectively scrolling receipts.
Jokes flew fast: “From essay to tweet,” “safety fell off the back of the truck,” and “Ctrl+Z on ‘open’.” The loudest narrative? Trust erosion. Is this pragmatic editing—or mission drift from “open and safe” to “we’ll handle it, trust us”? Either way, the community’s verdict is in: words matter, especially when your mission fits on a Post‑it.
Key Points
- •OpenAI’s IRS 501(c)(3) mission statements from 2016–2024 were extracted and versioned to show changes over time.
- •2016 mission emphasized openness, safety, broad benefit, and being unconstrained by financial returns.
- •2018 removed the commitment to building AI with the larger community and openly sharing plans and capabilities.
- •2021 introduced “general-purpose artificial intelligence,” strengthened “benefits humanity,” and shifted to developing and responsibly deploying safe AI.
- •2024 reduced the mission to ensuring AGI benefits all of humanity, omitting prior references to safety and financial-return constraints.