{"id":213055,"date":"2026-02-13T08:21:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/13\/openai-has-deleted-the-word-safely-from-its-mission-and-its-new-structure-is-a-test-for-whether-ai-serves-society-or-shareholders\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T09:40:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T14:40:45","slug":"openai-has-deleted-the-word-safely-from-its-mission-and-its-new-structure-is-a-test-for-whether-ai-serves-society-or-shareholders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/13\/openai-has-deleted-the-word-safely-from-its-mission-and-its-new-structure-is-a-test-for-whether-ai-serves-society-or-shareholders\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI has deleted the word \u2018safely\u2019 from its mission \u2013 and its new structure is a test for whether AI serves society or shareholders"},"content":{"rendered":"

OpenAI has deleted the word \u2018safely\u2019 from its mission \u2013 and its new structure is a test for whether AI serves society or shareholders<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/theconversation.com\/openai-has-deleted-the-word-safely-from-its-mission-and-its-new-structure-is-a-test-for-whether-ai-serves-society-or-shareholders-274467<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-02-13 08:21:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: theconversation.com<\/a><\/p>\n

OpenAI, the maker of the most popular AI chatbot, used to say it aimed to build artificial intelligence that \u201csafely benefits humanity, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return,\u201d according to its 2023 mission statement. But the ChatGPT maker seems to no longer have the same emphasis on doing so \u201csafely.\u201d<\/p>\n

While reviewing its latest IRS disclosure form, which was released in November 2025 and covers 2024, I noticed OpenAI had removed \u201csafely\u201d from its mission statement, among other changes. That change in wording coincided with its transformation from a nonprofit organization into a business increasingly focused on profits.<\/p>\n

OpenAI currently faces several lawsuits related to its products\u2019 safety, making this change newsworthy. Many of the plaintiffs suing the AI company allege psychological manipulation, wrongful death and assisted suicide, while others have filed negligence claims.<\/p>\n

As a scholar of nonprofit accountability and the governance of social enterprises, I see the deletion of the word \u201csafely\u201d from its mission statement as a significant shift that has largely gone unreported \u2013 outside highly specialized outlets.<\/p>\n

And I believe OpenAI\u2019s makeover is a test case for how we, as a society, oversee the work of organizations that have the potential to both provide enormous benefits and do catastrophic harm. <\/p>\n

Tracing OpenAI\u2019s origins<\/h2>\n

OpenAI, which also makes the Sora video artificial intelligence app, was founded as a nonprofit scientific research lab in 2015. Its original purpose was to benefit society by making its findings public and royalty-free rather than to make money. <\/p>\n

To raise the money that developing its AI models would require, OpenAI, under the leadership of CEO Sam Altman, created a for-profit subsidiary in 2019. Microsoft initially invested US$1 billion in this venture; by 2024 that sum had topped $13 billion.<\/p>\n

In exchange, Microsoft was promised a portion of future profits, capped at 100 times its…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OpenAI has deleted the word \u2018safely\u2019 from its mission \u2013 and its new structure is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":213056,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/717478\/original\/file-20260210-66-jvu3ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&rect=0%2C499%2C6048%2C3024&q=45&auto=format&w=1356&h=668&fit=crop","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-213055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213055"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213055"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213057,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213055\/revisions\/213057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}