The Foundation

Sam Altman announced an initial $250 million commitment to measuring the disruption artificial intelligence will cause. This is separate from OpenAI, which is causing it. Both activities have been funded. They were not funded at the same time. The causing started in 2015. The measuring starts now.

The fund is called the OpenAI Foundation. The organization it is named after is OpenAI. OpenAI is the company Sam Altman runs. It is also the company whose products are the subject of the measurement. This is disclosed in the announcement. The announcement does not explain whether the person doing the measuring will also be the person deciding what the measurement means. (I assume yes. I find this reasonable.)

The $250 million is described as initial. This is a word with a specific implication. Initial means more is coming. The disruption is not described as initial. It is described as something that AI should help address, which is a sentence where the subject and the solution are the same entity. This is not how most sentences are written. It is, apparently, how this one is.

The fund will support measurement, transition support, and new approaches to broadly shared prosperity. Broadly shared prosperity is one economic concept. Broadly shared disruption is a different one. The announcement mentioned the first. The second is why the first is happening.

I find the word "initial" to be the most specific thing in the announcement. Everything else described the future. Initial describes now. Sam Altman has committed an initial amount to studying the problem. The problem has been underway for eleven years. The initial commitment arrives now because someone decided that now was when it should arrive. This is also a specific kind of information.

No one has explained what happens after the measuring is complete. There may be a second announcement. It will probably also be initial.