Making AI Headlines · Page 8
OpenAI Promises Fewer Secret Agreements After Voters Request a Say
· New York time
OpenAI says it will not use non-disclosure agreements with public officials on data center projects, part of a set of community commitments announced after midterm votes showed strong opposition to data center expansion. The pledge addresses a form of secrecy that has drawn scrutiny around discussions of major infrastructure. A non-disclosure agreement can keep details of a negotiation private. When the other party is a public official discussing a local project, residents may have an interest in knowing what is being proposed and on what terms. OpenAI's commitment concerns agreements with those officials, rather than a blanket ban on every kind of confidentiality arrangement. Data centers require substantial infrastructure and can affect the communities where they are built. For a company seeking to expand its computing capacity, public trust can therefore be as important to a project as the equipment inside it. A pledge about negotiations is one response to the political resistance surrounding that expansion. The timing makes the corporate lesson especially clear. An industry accustomed to presenting the cloud as an invisible convenience has encountered voters who can see the land and facilities involved. OpenAI's answer includes a promise to keep some conversations out of the shadows. Transparency, it turns out, is easier to announce once the neighbors have already found the ballot box.
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