I may be wrong, but to my knowledge OpenAI:
- did not invent transformer architecture
- did not invent diffusion architecture
- did not come up with the idea for multi-modality
- did not invent the notion/architecture of the latest “agentic” models
They simply were the first to aggressively pursue scaling the transformer to the extent that is normal for the industry today. Although this has proven to produce interesting results, “simply adding scale” is, in my view, the least interesting development in modern ML. Giving credit where it’s due, they MAY have popularized the RLHF methodology, but I don’t recall them inventing that either?
(feel free to point out any of the above that I falsely attributed to NOT OpenAI.)
Additionally I seem to remember in an interview with Altman circa late ‘21 where he explains that the spirit of “OpenAI” and how their only goal is pursuing AGI, and “should someone else come up with a more promising path to get there, we would stop what we’re doing and help them”. I couldn’t find a reference to this interview, but anyone else, please feel free to share (I think it was a youtube link). - fast forward to 2025 and now “OpenAI” is the least open large contributor and indiscernible from your run-of-the-mill AI/ML valley startup insofar as they’re referring to others as “competitors” as opposed to collaborators.. interesting times…
They simply were the first to aggressively pursue scaling the transformer to the extent that is normal for the industry today. Although this has proven to produce interesting results, “simply adding scale” is, in my view, the least interesting development in modern ML. Giving credit where it’s due, they MAY have popularized the RLHF methodology, but I don’t recall them inventing that either?
(feel free to point out any of the above that I falsely attributed to NOT OpenAI.)
Additionally I seem to remember in an interview with Altman circa late ‘21 where he explains that the spirit of “OpenAI” and how their only goal is pursuing AGI, and “should someone else come up with a more promising path to get there, we would stop what we’re doing and help them”. I couldn’t find a reference to this interview, but anyone else, please feel free to share (I think it was a youtube link). - fast forward to 2025 and now “OpenAI” is the least open large contributor and indiscernible from your run-of-the-mill AI/ML valley startup insofar as they’re referring to others as “competitors” as opposed to collaborators.. interesting times…