Stated intent and actual intent are usually different, I expect they intended the opposite all along but were just riding the open source ethical AI wave to profit.
If they just wanted money, they could have cut out a lot of the ethical filters and choke out competitors. Google didn't stop NSFW. Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr, etc didn't. AI is bound to be used for NSFW among other things, but they've set the standards to make it ethical.
I think eventually they did let loose to try to keep ahead of competitors. This probably pissed off the board and led to the drama recently? Just speculation. Because the new models are nowhere near as anal as the initial release.
I think you are wrong here, the safety filters (“safety” and “ethics” for AI are labels for boundaries and concerns of different ideological factions, and Altman and OpenAI are deep in the “safety” side—which has the nost money and power behind it so “safety” is also becoming the generic term for AI boundaries) are an important oart if the PR and regulatory lobbying effort, which is key to OpenAI’s long term moneymaking plan, given the absence of a durable moat for commercial AI.
> If they just wanted money, they could have cut out a lot of the ethical filters and choke out competitors. Google didn't stop NSFW. Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr, etc didn't.
Neither, in practice, has OpenAI—there are whole communitids built around using OpenAI's models for very, very NSFW purposes. They've prevented casual NSFW, to oresent the image they want to thr government and interest grouoa whose support they want as they lovby to shape regulation of AI. avoiding being a target for things like the 404 Media campaign against CivitAI where the NSFW is more readily visible.