Feb 17, 2026 06:00:00

OpenAI's mission has gradually changed and the word 'safely' has finally been deleted

OpenAI, the developer of the chat AI ChatGPT and the video generation AI Sora, is structured as a nonprofit organization that manages and owns its for-profit subsidiaries. However, the company is gradually strengthening its for-profit nature, including

aiming for an initial public offering (IPO) in 2026. Meanwhile, it has been pointed out that the word 'safely' was finally removed from the mission statement that OpenAI submitted to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the 2024 version.

OpenAI has deleted the word 'safely' from its mission – and its new structure is a test for whether AI serves society or shareholders
https://theconversation.com/openai-has-deleted-the-word-safely-from-its-mission-and-its-new-structure-is-a-test-for-whether-ai-serves-society-or-shareholders-274467

The evolution of OpenAI's mission statement
https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/13/openai-mission-statement/

OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit AI research organization , with the initial goal of preventing the misuse of AI, making research results public, and enabling people around the world to benefit from AI.

However, in 2019, a for-profit subsidiary, OpenAI Global LLC, was established, transforming the company into a non-profit organization managing the for-profit side. Microsoft invested $1 billion (approximately 108 billion yen at the time) and will continue to deepen its ties with OpenAI.

In 2024, OpenAI announced that it would change its structure from one in which a for-profit subsidiary was established under a non-profit organization to one led by a for-profit company in order to overcome the situation in which shareholder interests could not be prioritized. This policy was abandoned due to opposition from various quarters, but in October 2025, the reorganization was realized, and OpenAI Group PBC, a public benefit corporation (PBC), was placed under the non-profit organization.

OpenAI restructures, continues to partner with Microsoft but excludes hardware it plans to deploy - GIGAZINE

To ensure that nonprofit organizations, including OpenAI, meet the requirements for tax-exempt status, they are required to submit documents (tax returns) to the IRS detailing the organization's mission, activities, and financial status. This includes a section on mission statements, which are used to determine whether an organization is worthy of maintaining its tax-exempt status. The mission statements are legally binding and are used to determine whether an organization merits tax-exempt status.

It has been pointed out that the contents of OpenAI's mission statement change over the years. Software engineer Simon Willison has published OpenAI's mission statement on Github Gist so that you can check the changes from year to year.

Revisions · OpenAI mission statements · GitHub
https://gist.github.com/simonw/e36f0e5ef4a86881d145083f759bcf25/revisions

In its original mission statement submitted in 2016, it read: 'OpenAI's goal is to advance digital intelligence in ways that are most beneficial to all of humanity, unconstrained by the need for financial return. We believe AI technologies will help shape the 21st century, and we want to help the world build safe AI technologies and ensure that the benefits of AI are distributed as widely and equally as possible. We seek to build AI as part of a larger community, and we want to openly share our plans and capabilities along the way.'

However, the 2018 mission statement removed the following: 'We seek to build AI as part of a larger community, and along the way we want to openly share our plans and capabilities.'

In 2020, the phrase 'for the whole' was dropped from the phrase 'in a manner most beneficial to humanity as a whole,' and in 2021, the phrase 'general-purpose artificial intelligence' appeared for the first time.

The 2024 mission statement has almost completely removed the previous wording and is now reduced to the short sentence, 'OpenAI's mission is to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity.' It no longer includes the non-profit organization's stance of being 'unconstrained by the need for financial return' or its emphasis on 'safety.'

Alnour Ebrahim , a professor of business administration at Tufts University in the United States, said OpenAI's change in mission statement clearly shows that the company prioritizes profits over the safety of its products. He argued that OpenAI's board of directors abandoned its mission to ensure safety, and that the attorneys general of California and Delaware allowed OpenAI to be restructured, leaving the public with a heavy burden to bear.