OpenAI’s 2017 Plan to Auction AGI to China and Russia (Per The Atlantic)
In 2017, The Atlantic reports that OpenAI co-founders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever proposed selling the company's future Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) rights to governments, including the US, China, and Russia. This strategy, known as the "countries plan," emerged as a funding solution when Elon Musk was withdrawing from OpenAI.
The Plan and its Critics
According to an excerpt from Kevin Roose’s book The AGI Chronicles, Brockman and Sutskever expected governments to take over AGI development. They argued that selling it early could provide much-needed funds for the lab. However, Dario Amodei, another OpenAI co-founder, strongly objected in a December 2017 email.
"In my opinion this plan would exacerbate rather than reduce arms races, would potentially enable human rights atrocities… and would undermine OpenAI’s moral legitimacy," Amodei wrote.
OpenAI ultimately rejected the plan after securing funding from Microsoft.
Amodei's Departure and Anthropic
Amodei's disagreement with Brockman and Sutskever over this strategy led to his departure from OpenAI, where he founded Anthropic. The two companies have maintained a tense relationship since, with Amodei describing Altman and Brockman as "evil" in internal messages.
Recent Developments
As reported by TNW, both Sam Altman and Dario Amodei skipped an Australian inquiry related to AI ethics. Anthropic is also preparing for an IPO, having lost $42 billion in 2025, according to its prospectus. Meanwhile, Greg Brockman recently dropped a $25 million pledge to an AI super PAC.