OpenAI Foundation pledges $250 million to help workers navigate AI economic disruption

OpenAI Foundation commits $250 million to help workers, economies navigate AI disruption

May 27 (Reuters) - The non-profit that controls OpenAI will commit an initial $250 million for grants, partnerships and direct work aimed at helping workers and economies navigate the disruption caused by AI technology, it said on Wednesday. The funds, the first such commitment from the OpenAI Foundation, will back research into AI's impact on the labor market, support workers and communities facing near-term displacement and explore new ways to distribute economic gains from AI more broadly. "The current pace of change means the window to get ⁠this right is shorter than we're used to, and the cost of getting it wrong is profound," the non-profit said in a statement. The rising use of AI tools capable of automating tasks such as coding have sparked fears of widespread job losses, with several companies including Block (XYZ.N), opens new tab and Standard Chartered (STAN.L), opens new tab explicitly citing AI efficiencies for recent layoffs. The OpenAI Foundation received a 26% stake in the startup's for-profit entity last year as part of a restructuring that valued its holding at $130 billion at ⁠the time, making it one of the world's biggest charities. In March, OpenAI committed to investing at least $1 billion through the non-profit over the next year in AI-tied projects, including life sciences and community programs. The foundation said on Wednesday its first initiatives ⁠would be announced later this year and that it was building a team that would not just distribute grants like a typical non-profit, but also run some programs directly, ⁠instead of acting solely as an intermediary. Grants will go to non-profits as well as a wide range of other organizations, it said. Projects that the ⁠foundation is interested in include those that involve AI-powered simulations to model how economies might evolve as the technology improves. Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru and Deepa Seetharaman in San Francisco; Editing by Jonathan Ananda Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

OpenAI Foundation Pledges $250 Million to Help Cushion AI's Economic Disruption - Decrypt

The initiative forms part of a broader $1 billion investment commitment by OpenAI over the next year. The OpenAI Foundation announced Wednesday that it would commit an initial $250 million to help societies prepare for the economic upheaval expected to accompany the rapid spread of artificial intelligence -- an acknowledgment from within the AI industry itself that the technology's gains could negatively impact large swaths of the workforce. The ChatGPT maker's foundation said money will flow through grants, partnerships, and direct work organized around three priorities: understanding how AI is reshaping the economy, supporting workers through near-term disruption, and building new structures for sharing the long-term benefits of automation broadly. The foundation's announcement, authored by Divya Siddarth and Wojciech Zaremba, argues that existing economic measurement tools -- including labor statistics and GDP -- were built for a different era and may fail to capture how AI redistributes value among workers, firms, consumers, and capital owners. The foundation said it wants to help build the next generation of that infrastructure, including better real-time labor market data and updated occupational mapping systems. "AI is going to lead to huge economic changes as it makes previously scarce capabilities far more widely available, and there is deep uncertainty about how far and how fast they will go," they wrote. "The breadth of possibilities makes this an extraordinary opportunity to build systems that enable better lives for people now and in the future. But the current pace of change means the window to get this right is shorter than we're used to, and the cost of getting it wrong is immense." On worker assistance, the foundation said traditional retraining programs have mixed evidence and that any transition agenda would likely need to be broader, encompassing wage loss insurance, job search support, and pathways into growing sectors. The announcement also ventures into more politically charged territory. The foundation said it wants to explore proposals such as shifting taxation from labor toward capital, windfall, or excess-returns mechanisms, and public or sovereign wealth fund models -- drawing on examples like Norway's Government Pension Fund and Alaska's Permanent Fund -- as potential tools for distributing AI-generated wealth more widely.

OpenAI Pledges $250 Million to Help AI-Disrupted Workers | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. This effort from the OpenAI Foundation will cover grants, partnerships and "direct work" to assist workers and economies impacted by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), according to a Wednesday (May 27) news release. "Economic systems exist, in principle, to give people security, autonomy, and the ability to build purposeful lives. Too often they fall short," the foundation said in the release. "AI is going to lead to huge economic changes as it makes previously scarce capabilities far more widely available, and there is deep uncertainty about how far and how fast they will go." The range of possibilities offers an opportunity to develop systems that let people live better, but the pace of change means "the window to get this right is shorter than we're used to, and the cost of getting it wrong is immense," the foundation added. The program will focus on investing in "independent measurement and forecasting infrastructure" to gain a clearer picture of AI's effect on the economy, the release said. It will also help support workers and communities "through near-term disruption," as well as bolstering efforts to organize "post-AI political economies and sharing economic gains broadly for people around the world." The announcement comes amid debate among AI advocates about what impact AI will have on the world's workers. Some foresee widespread layoffs, with companies already instituting job cuts as they embrace the technology. Others say predictions of a "jobs apocalypse" are overblown. Among that group now is OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who recently walked back earlier predictions about AI-related job loss. "I'm delighted to be wrong about this, I thought there would have been more impact on entry-level white-collar jobs being eliminated by now than has actually happened," Altman said Tuesday at a Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) conference in Sydney. "I now think I understand more about why it hasn't, and I'm obviously grateful but that is an area where my intuitions were just off," he added. Meanwhile, a recent PYMNTS Intelligence report, "The Resilience Deficit: Labor Workers in an Automated Economy," finds that an increasing number of hourly workers in the U.S. are encountering AI in the workplace before they feel financially prepared for it. "AI investment is accelerating across industries, and companies are increasingly framing automation as a productivity tool rather than an experimental technology," PYMNTS wrote earlier this week. However, the data "suggested the bigger divide may not be about who encounters AI first. It may center on who has the resources to adapt once workplace changes begin."

AI is going to bring huge economic changes, says OpenAI

The OpenAI Foundation is committing an initial $250 million to support research, partnerships and projects related to AI's economic impact OpenAI has announced a new initiative focused on preparing for the economic impact of artificial intelligence. The company says AI is going to create 'huge economic changes' and wants to help prepare for what comes next. The OpenAI Foundation is committing an initial $250 million to support research, partnerships and projects related to AI's economic impact. The money will be used for grants, pilot programs and direct work aimed at creating what OpenAI calls 'secure and abundant economic futures.' 'We still don't have good ways to answer fundamental questions about how AI is changing and will change the economy, the company said in a blogpost. 'The systems society relies on to measure and interpret economic change were built for a different era. Our goal is to help build what comes next.' Also read: Your iPhone may soon detect if it has been snatched and lock itself automatically According to OpenAI, one of the biggest challenges is understanding who benefits most from AI. The company wants to study whether AI-generated value will mainly help workers through better wages, businesses through higher profits, or consumers through lower prices and improved services. OpenAI plans to focus on three main areas. The first is understanding AI's economic effects through better research and data systems. The second is supporting workers and communities during economic changes caused by AI. The third is exploring new ideas for long-term economic security. 'Every country will experience the AI transition differently. Beyond directly measuring AI's impacts on local economies, we will also fund economic evaluations to understand how AI can help people in different contexts,' the company said. In the blogpost, OpenAI also mentioned it will announce its first projects later this year. Also read: Paid for UK visa online? Your passport and selfie may have been exposed in alleged data leak OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also spoke about the initiative on X. He wrote, 'AI should dramatically increase quality of life and individual freedoms for people around the world.' 'The OpenAI Foundation is making an initial $250M commitment to measurement, transition support, and new approaches to broadly shared prosperity.'