OpenAI chief Sam Altman says AI company needs new open-source strategy

OpenAI chief Sam Altman said his high-profile artificial intelligence company is “on the wrong side of history.”

OpenAI chief Sam Altman on Friday said his high-profile artificial intelligence company is "on the wrong side of history" when it comes to being open about how its technology works.

Altman's comments came during an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit where he fielded questions including whether he would consider publishing OpenAI research.

Altman replied he was in favour of the idea and that it is a topic of discussion inside San Francisco-based OpenAI.

"I personally think we have been on the wrong side of history here and need to figure out a different open source strategy," Altman said.

"Not everyone at OpenAI shares this view, and it's also not our current highest priority."

Chinese AI newcomer DeepSeek has made headlines for its R1 chatbot's supposed low cost and high performance, but also its claim to be a public-spirited "open-source" project in contrast to closed alternatives from OpenAI and Google.

Open source refers to the practice of programmers revealing the source code of their software, rather than just the "compiled" program ready to run on a computer.