I look forward to seeing how OpenAI uses outside contributions, provides easy to use software and documentation, etc.
OpenAI is more about exploring new research areas and pushing the cutting edge, while publishing papers and sharing code along the while. Both are admirable goals, but what OpenAI is aiming for has never been attempted before.
Very excited to see what comes of it!
OpenCog is a bit different because it's founded on a specific approach to building AGI. I realize OpenCog is kind of a pain to work with at present, and we hope to fix that during the coming year....
But I see OpenCog and OpenAI as complementary initiatives, really.... OpenAI's mandate is more broad and generic in terms of fostering and funding open-source AGI research, which is wonderful ... but OpenAI does not come along with a specific, coherent AGI design from what I can see.... Quite possibly OpenAI will end up funding stuff that is used in OpenCog, or even funding some work on OpenCog directly, down the road...
For that matter, if I had a billion dollars, I wouldn't put it all into OpenCog, I would also fund a variety of OSS projects in AI and other important domains of science and engineering...
Interesting times ;)