The writer is a fellow at Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and the Cyber Policy Center. She is the author of ‘The Tech Coup’
OpenAI has a new pitch for the world’s governments: buy “AI on democratic rails” through its “OpenAI for countries” initiative. The project is both smart politics and a lucrative business opportunity. The company will own every layer of the tech stack from data centres to the foundation model to the user interface. Elon Musk, appreciating the stakes, even tried to force his artificial intelligence company xAI into the deal.
Looking beyond the marketing, what does it mean for countries to build AI on democratic rails? On its blog, OpenAI says democratic AI “means the development, use and deployment of AI that protects and incorporates long-standing democratic principles” and even “human rights”. It goes on to outline how this package would prevent government use of AI to “amass control”. The framing taps into the competition between the US and China for dominance in the technology, a salient issue on both sides of the aisle in Congress.