全球视野 | 当非营利使命和商业利益发生冲突时，OpenAI会如何应对？
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在11月的下半月，OpenAI在人工智能领域的崛起出现了意外的转折：联合创始人山姆·奥特曼的突然罢免和回归。这一系列风波揭示了OpenAI的独特治理结构下的内部斗争，这涉及了公司的非营利使命与商业化推动之间的冲突。杭基会从多家海外信息源，例如福布斯、纽约时报、科学美国人等各家不同的媒体与作者中，截取了他们对于这一系列风波以及OpenAI这一非营利组织治理结构的观点与看法。
OpenAI现在明确以利润为导向，这是好事
福布斯/Forbes
The recent chaos at OpenAI highlights the shortcomings of this hybrid structure. As a nonprofit, OpenAI was beholden to the whims of a board clearly prone to making rash decisions. When they removed a popular founder over unspecified differences, the inept board members nearly blew up a company valued at $80 billion. With so much money on the line, a profit-seeking entity’s management would probably never engage in such self-sabotaging behavior.
最近OpenAI的混合结构暴露了其不足之处。作为一家非营利组织，OpenAI受制于容易做出仓促决定的董事会的心血来潮。当他们因为莫名其妙的分歧而罢免了一位颇受欢迎的创始人时，无能的董事会成员差点毁了这家估值800亿美元的公司。面对如此巨额的资金，一个利润为导向的实体的管理层，可能永远不会做出这种自毁前程的行为。
Competitive pressures may actually push OpenAI to develop AI more responsibly and safely. This is merely Adam Smith's “invisible hand” of the market at work, channeling self-interest toward collective benefit.
竞争压力实际上可能会促使OpenAI更负责任、更安全地开发人工智能。这不过是亚当·斯密的“看不见的手”在发挥作用，将自身利益导向集体利益。
In fact, no company is purely profit-driven, nor should they be. While profits are paramount to survival in the competitive marketplace, they should always be pursued with a degree of social responsibility. What that means will of course vary from person to person and context to context. Still, profits act like a guardrail that prevents managers of organizations from over-indulging their passions. OpenAI’s strict reversal in recent weeks is a clear-cut example of this.
事实上，没有一家公司是纯粹以利润为导向的，也不应该如此。在竞争激烈的市场中，利润对于生存至关重要。但在追求利润的同时，也应承担一定程度的社会责任。当然，这意味着什么，会因人而异，因环境而异。不过，利润就像一道护栏，防止组织管理者过度放纵自己的激情。OpenAI最近几周的反转就是一个鲜明的例子。
The embrace of capitalism and the pursuit of profits is not just a pragmatic choice to satisfy investors. It will make OpenAI better at achieving its mission of safe and responsible AI, by curtailing the worst excesses of those with power within the company. In a world where artificial intelligence may hold the key to our future, profit isn’t just good, it’s essential for ensuring progress stays on track and remains ethical.
拥抱资本主义，追求利润，这不仅仅是为了满足投资者而做出的务实选择。通过遏制公司内部掌权者最恶劣的过激行为，它将使OpenAI更好地实现其安全、负责任的人工智能使命。在人工智能可能成为我们未来关键一环的世界中，利润不仅是好事，而且对于确保进展不偏离轨道和保持道德至关重要。
发布时间：2023年12月9日
作者：James Broughel（美国竞争企业协会高级研究员）
OpenAI的肥皂剧式崩溃预示着
人工智能造福人类的前景堪忧
科学美国人/Scientific American
The Vichy France–rivaling collapse of this board and its intended nonprofit firewall, all unable to withstand the unfettered force of raw money power, revealed in the Altman saga where the AI revolution is headed—and it’s wherever the most rich and powerful people in tech want it to go.
OpenAI董事会及其旨在保护非营利性质的屏障的崩溃，堪比维希法国（二战期间纳粹德国占领下的法国傀儡政府）的崩溃。他们都无法抵挡原始金钱力量的无拘束冲击。这在奥特曼的事件中，揭示了人工智能革命的走向。而这正朝着科技领域最富有和最有权势的人们想要的方向发展。
While OpenAI remains a nonprofit organization, it’s proven entirely beholden to the forces of capitalism, forced to oust its entire board based on a decision that the potentates of Silicon Valley—men such as Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla—didn’t like.
尽管OpenAI仍然是一个非营利组织，但它明显受制于资本主义的力量。硅谷的权贵们（如Kholsa Ventures创始人Vinod Khosla等人）不喜欢OpenAI的一个决定，因此它被迫赶走了整个董事会。
Whatever fantasies we may have had about the nonprofit structure of OpenAI have been eviscerated by the dread hand of capitalism. Worse still, we don’t actually know why Altman was fired, other than that it was a conflict between the for-profit and nonprofit sides of the company. Regardless, the result is that the largest artificial intelligence company in the world is—corporate structure be damned—controlled by venture capitalists and a multitrillion-dollar public tech company. The nonprofit board is entirely subordinate to Altman, who is subordinate to the financial interests that put him back in power, which can (and will) control his destiny in the same shadowy way that they reinstalled him.
无论我们曾对OpenAI的非营利结构抱有怎样的幻想，都已被资本主义的可怕之手摧毁殆尽。更糟糕的是，我们并不知道奥特曼被解雇的原因，只知道这是公司营利性和非营利性之间的冲突。不管怎么说，结果就是世界上最大的人工智能公司被风险资本家和一家市值数亿美元的上市科技公司所控制，公司结构被破坏。非营利性董事会完全从属于奥特曼，而奥特曼则从属于让他重新掌权的金融利益集团。这些利益集团可以（也将会）以重新启用他的、同样的阴暗方式，控制他的命运。
The OpenAI debacle is a dark day for the Valley, where the rich and powerful used their might to crush those who won’t aggressively and recklessly pursue technological progress at all costs. Putting aside the drama and intrigue, this is a cautionary tale, and proof that the Valley’s elite only wants you to “Think different” if you’re thinking exactly like they are.
OpenAI的失败是硅谷黑暗的一天。在这一天里，富豪和权贵们利用他们的力量，不惜一切代价打压那些不愿付出一切代价来激进而鲁莽地追求技术进步的人。抛开戏剧性和阴谋诡计不谈，这是一个警世故事，它证明了只有当你的想法与他们一模一样时，硅谷的精英们才会希望你“与众不同”。
发布时间：2023年12月11日
作者：ED ZITRON（美国一家科技和商业公共关系机构EZPR的CEO）
OpenAI失败的治理实验
哈佛商业评论/Harvard Business Review
In mixing the for-profit and nonprofit models, OpenAI hoped for the best of both worlds. Instead, it got the worst of both and underscored the importance of best practices in management and governance.
在混合营利和非营利模式的过程中，OpenAI希望能够兼顾两者的最佳优势。相反，它却得到了两者中最糟糕的结果，并凸显了管理和治理方面最佳实践的重要性。
The problem is that a novel governance model like the one they adopted is inherently less predictable. As one experienced CEO said to me, “The OpenAI governance structure is, for lack of a better word, weird. Weird systems inevitably yield weird results.” If AI “safety” was the goal, adopting a unique corporate structure that is far less well understood constitutes a major gamble, imperiling the existence of a momentous startup like OpenAI.
问题在于，像他们采用的这种新颖的治理模式本身就不那么容易预测。正如一位经验丰富的CEO对我说的那样：“OpenAI的治理结构，没有更好的词来形容，就是怪异。怪异的系统必然会产生怪异的结果。”如果人工智能的目标是“安全性”，那么采用一种鲜为人知的独特公司结构就是一场重大的赌博，会危及OpenAI这样一家重要初创公司的生存。
What happens now? Well, Altman is back as CEO — though he was left off the reconstituted board. All but one of the board members who ousted him are gone. But it’s unclear so far what if any governance improvements are coming. Especially with the recently heightened uncertainties, OpenAI would benefit from a more straightforward structure. Investors and employees would get the benefits of easier scaling, and those worried about AI safety would get a more stable, predictable arrangement. Regulators, too, would benefit from the predictability.
现在会发生什么呢？奥特曼重新担任CEO，不过他被排除在重组后的董事会之外。除一名董事外，将他赶下台的所有董事都走了。但到目前为止，还不清楚是否会有任何治理方面的改进。特别是在最近不确定性增加的情况下，OpenAI将受益于一个更简单明了的结构。投资者和员工将获得更容易扩展的好处，而那些担心人工智能安全的人将获得一个更稳定、更可预测的安排。监管机构也将从可预测性中受益。
Unfortunately, major shifts in a startup’s operating or governance model are particularly perilous. Significant changes made as a startup scales risk wrecking the company. And that’s where OpenAI finds itself. It needs to limit its experimentation to AI research and products, and carefully adopt a more time-tested governance model. But getting from here to there will be fraught with difficulties. People, not engineering, are the hardest part.
不幸的是，初创公司在运营或治理模式上进行重大转变尤其危险。随着初创公司规模的扩大，做出重大改变有可能会毁掉公司。这就是OpenAI的处境。它需要将实验范围限制在人工智能研究和产品上，并谨慎地采用更久经考验的管理模式。但要从现在这里到达那里，将充满困难。最难的是人，而不是工程。
发布时间：2023年11月30日
作者：Noam Wasserman（纽约叶史瓦大学西·西姆斯商学院院长）
人工智能的灵魂之争
纽约时报/The New York Times
One of the nice things about OpenAI is that it was built on distrust. It began as a nonprofit research lab because its founders didn’t think artificial intelligence should be pioneered by commercial firms, which are driven overwhelmingly by the profit motive.
OpenAI的优点之一就是建立在不信任的基础上。它最初是一个非营利性的研究实验室，因为其创始人认为人工智能不应该由商业公司来领导开拓，原因是商业公司绝大多数是受利润所驱动的。
As it evolved, OpenAI turned into what you might call a fruitful contradiction: a for-profit company overseen by a nonprofit board with a corporate culture somewhere in between.
随着发展，OpenAI变成了一种可以称之为富有成效的矛盾体：一个由非营利性董事会监督的营利性公司，其企业文化处于两者之间。
Many of the people at the company seem simultaneously motivated by the scientist’s desire to discover, the capitalist’s desire to ship product and the do-gooder’s desire to do this all safely.
该公司的许多人似乎同时受到科学家的探索欲望、资本家的产品出货欲望以及慈善家安全进行所有这些愿望的欲望驱使。
A.I. is a field that has brilliant people painting wildly diverging but also persuasive portraits of where this is going. The venture capital investor Marc Andreessen emphasizes that it is going to change the world vastly for the better. The cognitive scientist Gary Marcus depicts an equally persuasive scenario about how all this could go wrong.
人工智能领域的杰出人士对其发展前景的描绘大相径庭，但也颇具说服力。风险投资人马克·安德森强调，人工智能将极大地改善世界。认知科学家加里·马库斯描绘了一个同样具有说服力的场景，即这一切都可能会出错的场景。
Nobody really knows who is right, but the researchers just keep plowing ahead. Their behavior reminds me of something Alan Turing wrote in 1950: “We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.”
没有人真正知道谁是对的，但研究人员却一直在向前推进。他们的行为让我想起了艾伦·麦席森·图灵在1950年写的一段话：“我们只能看到前方很短的距离，但我们可以看到有很多事情需要做。”
发布时间：2023年11月23日
作者：David Brooks（耶鲁大学教师、美国艺术与科学院成员）
这是从OpenAI的惨败中得到的真正教训
快公司/Fast Company
What is also clear: Public institutions that prioritize the public good over short-term profits are desperately needed for the AI era.
同样显而易见的是：人工智能时代亟需优先考虑公共利益而非短期利润的公共机构。
History has shown that transformative technology created by the private sector needs to be balanced out by public option. Options should be serving needs not met by the wonderful (yet often one-dimensional) offerings of private players.
历史表明，私营部门创造的变革性技术，需要公共选择来平衡。公共选择应满足私营企业所提供的精彩（但往往是单一的）产品所无法满足的需求。
The same has been true in the internet era. Wikipedia emerged to ensure that the “sum of all human knowledge” was both created by and held in public hands as we digitized our society. The Linux and Apache foundations emerged to ensure that the core plumbing of the internet is owned and managed collectively. And the Mozilla Foundation was formed to ensure that the technology that runs the web was open to everyone, and not controlled by a single company.
互联网时代也是如此。维基百科的出现是为了确保“人类所有知识的总和”既由公众创造，又在我们社会数字化的过程中掌握在公众手中。Linux和Apache基金会出现是为了确保互联网的核心基础设施由集体拥有和管理。而Mozilla基金会的成立则是为了确保运行网络的技术向所有人开放，而不是由一家公司控制。
The success of these organizations serves as a counterpoint to the narrative that emerged from the Open AI fracas last week: that nonprofits shouldn’t be trusted to create the technology that underpins our digital lives. As the examples of Wikipedia, Linux, and Mozilla show, this argument is just silly. Nonprofit public institutions have been a critical part of creating a vibrant, open, and innovative digital society.
这些组织的成功与上周OpenAI风波所导致的观点形成了鲜明对比：即非营利机构不应该被信任来创建支撑我们数字生活的技术。正如维基百科、Linux和Mozilla的例子所显示的那样，这种说法实在是太愚蠢了。非营利性公共机构一直是创建充满活力、开放和创新的数字社会的关键组成部分。
All of this gives me hope that there is a deeper and longer story to be told than the one we heard the past few weeks. Yes, OpenAI’s nonprofit governance model failed—and OpenAI failed to become the public institution its founders envisaged. Regardless, we are still well on our way to building the public technology institutions we need for the AI era—institutions that will ensure AI truly serves humanity by acting as a complement and counterbalance to whatever the private players build.
所有这一切都给我带来了希望，让我相信还有比过去几周我们听到的故事，要更深刻、更长远的故事要讲。是的，OpenAI的非营利治理模式失败了，OpenAI也未能成为其创始人所设想的公共机构。无论如何，我们仍在建设人工智能时代所需的公共技术机构的道路上稳步前行。这些机构将确保人工智能真正服务于人类，成为私营机构的补充和制衡。
发布时间：2023年12月5日
作者：Mark Surman（Mozilla基金会主席，这是一家为支持和领导开放源代码项目而设立的一个非营利组织。）
事件时间线
11月17日
Microsoft learns of Altman's firing "a minute" before the world does, Axios reports.
据Axios报道，微软比外界早“一分钟”得知奥特曼被解雇的消息。
11月17日
OpenAI releases statement that CEO Sam Altman will be leaving the company "after a deliberative review process by the board" and that Greg Brockman will be stepping down as chair.
OpenAI发布声明称，首席执行官山姆·奥特曼将“在董事会进行审议审查后”离开公司，格雷格·布罗克曼也将卸任主席一职。
11月17日
Late that evening Brockman announces he is quitting the company.
当天深夜，布罗克曼宣布退出公司。
11月19日
Microsoft announces that it has hired Altman and Greg Brockman to lead a new research unit.
微软宣布聘请奥特曼和格雷格·布罗克曼领导一个新的研究部门。
11月20日
OpenAI announces another interim CEO — Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear.
OpenAI宣布另一位临时首席执行官——Twitch联合创始人埃米特·谢尔。
11月20日
The overwhelming majority of OpenAI's 700-plus employees sign an open letter urging the board to resign, saying they would quit if its members didn't.
OpenAI的700多名员工中的绝大多数人签署了一封公开信，敦促董事会辞职，并表示如果董事会成员不辞职，他们也会辞职。
11月21日
Just after 10pm, OpenAI releases a statement that it has come to a "deal in principle" for Altman to return as CEO, with a new board chaired by former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor.
晚上10点刚过，OpenAI发布声明称，已达成“原则性协议”，奥特曼将重新担任首席执行官，新董事会主席将由前Salesforce联席首席执行官布雷特·泰勒担任。
11月29日
OpenAI officially reinstates Altman as CEO and Brockman as president, says Microsoft will get a non-voting observer sat on the board.
OpenAI正式恢复奥特曼的首席执行官职位，恢复布洛克曼的总裁职位，并表示微软将在董事会中获得一个无投票权的观察员席位。
11月29日
Altman tells Axios the "highest priority" for the company's new board is exploring a range of changes to "improve the governance structure" — including whether OpenAI remains controlled by a non-profit entity.
奥特曼告诉Axios，公司新董事会的“重中之重”是探索一系列变革，以 “改善治理结构”，包括OpenAI是否继续由非营利实体控制。
来源：AXIOS
OpenAI的结构
来源：OpenAI
关键句翻译
OpenAI的有限营利结构允许投资者和员工获得一定的固定回报，除此之外，其他一切都归非营利组织所有。那么有限营利结构的英文是什么？
Capped Profit Structure
capped adj. 封顶的；有上限的
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