After announcing plans to advance its initial public offering, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki published a joint statement on Monday, systematically outlining the company's future strategic direction. They positioned "building AGI for everyone" as the core mission and declared the company's formal entry into its third development phase.
In the article, Altman articulated OpenAI's three current primary objectives: constructing AI systems capable of automating the AI research process, accelerating scientific progress and economic growth, and providing personal AGI to every individual globally. He anticipates that by March 2028, a significant portion of OpenAI's research work will be completed collaboratively by AI systems and human researchers.
The article emphasizes that the future of AI should not be monopolized by a handful of companies, governments, or individuals, stating that broad distribution of power is foundational for a safer and more resilient society. This statement carries clear public relations and strategic significance in the context of OpenAI's accelerated commercialization and push toward a public listing.
Core Objectives: From Research Automation to Universal AGI
Altman and Pachocki explicitly listed OpenAI's three core current goals in the article.
First, to build an "automated AI researcher"—an AI system capable of accelerating and increasingly automating the research process itself, while maintaining steerability, accountability, and a connection to humans. OpenAI internally expects that by March 2028, a significant proportion of its research will be conducted collaboratively by AI systems and researchers.
Second, to accelerate economic development by driving scientific progress, enhancing productivity and economic growth, while committing to ensuring the benefits are widely shared, giving everyone an opportunity to gain a meaningful share of the prosperity created by AI.
Third, to provide personal AGI to every person on the planet, enabling them to benefit from this most transformative human technology in ways they choose.
Third Phase: Transitioning from a Product Company to AI Infrastructure
Altman segmented OpenAI's development history into three phases and announced the company's official entry into the third phase.
The first phase was centered on foundational AGI research. The second phase began as research outcomes moved into real-world applications, with OpenAI transforming into a product company, advancing AGI progress by deploying systems and observing how users interact with them.
The article notes that the economy is now beginning to reshape around AI, and the central question has shifted to: how to make advanced AI abundant, affordable, safe, practical, and sufficiently easy to use so that every person and organization can benefit. "Frontier capabilities are only part of the job; the larger task is turning that capability into tools people can actually use to thrive."
Safety and Alignment: Human Judgment Amidst Technological Acceleration
The article maintains a clear vigilance towards potential risks arising from AI's accelerated development, placing safety and alignment issues at the core.
Altman wrote that powerful systems must remain safe, aligned with human intent, and under human control. "Automating everything is not the future we want; it feels both empty and dangerous." He emphasized that as AI system capabilities grow, the human role becomes even more critical—setting direction, making trade-offs, applying judgment, and bringing values, taste, care, and responsibility into the work.
The article also calls for establishing international coordination mechanisms, suggesting that an international organization should ultimately be set up to coordinate major AI research efforts to reduce catastrophic risks and, when necessary, coordinate a slowdown in frontier development to ensure societal resilience, safety, and alignment progress can keep pace with technological advances.
Power Distribution: Anti-Monopoly Stance and Tensions with Commercialization
A core theme of the article is wariness of power concentration. Altman explicitly stated that a good AI future should not be one where a few institutions control most of the capability and benefits, but rather one where numerous individuals, businesses, communities, and nations can participate in building, benefiting from, and holding power.
"Human history shows that concentrated power creates fragility, while widely shared power makes societies more resilient, adaptable, and free," the article states.
This stance creates an inherent tension with OpenAI's path of commercial expansion as it accelerates its IPO process and seeks larger-scale financing. The article lists access, safety, privacy, affordability, an open ecosystem, and public oversight as key elements for realizing this vision but does not provide specific mechanisms for balancing these principles with commercial interests.
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