“They knew they were misleading people and failed to take an opportunity to correct.”
Our reading, the sentence that was checked:
OpenAI knew it was misleading people into believing it meant open-sourced AI and failed to take an opportunity, at a May 2016 meeting, to correct that belief.
Assessment: Supported Evidence as of
Where and when Gary Marcus wrote it
Marcus on AI, OpenAI’s “Own Goal”, paragraph 15.
- Said
- Source observed
- live page, full text, public
- Evidence as of
- the cutoff for this assessment
- Assessment recorded
- assessment marcus-openais-own-goal-463360-a2
We recorded 7 claims from this post. See every claim from this post.
The wording above is the version this site observed on 2026-10-29. The source may have been edited after 2024-03-06. This page does not claim the wording was captured then.
What the claim commits to
- Kind
- Observation
- Deadline, as the speaker wrote it
- None stated. This site does not add one.
- Deadline state when assessed
- No horizon
- Deadline state on 2026-10-29
- No horizon (the release’s reference date)
Conditions
- at the May 2016 meeting described by The New Yorker (scope, stated by the speaker)
From the speaker
- They knew they were misleading people
- failed to take an opportunity to correct
- a description of a May 2016 meeting
Our interpretation
- The claim concerns the May 2016 meeting described in The New Yorker, not a conditional forecast.
- They refers to the OpenAI leaders present, specifically Altman and Brockman.
- The plain reading is that leadership learned of a mistaken public belief about releasing source code and chose to leave it uncorrected.
- This does not require proving that leadership originally created every instance of the misconception.
Counts as supported if: The meeting account records that leaders were told of the open-source misconception, acknowledged a different actual intention, and chose not to correct it.
Counts as contradicted if: The account shows that leaders corrected the misconception, did not recognize it, or made a materially different statement.
Retrospective: these criteria were written after the outcome was public.
Current assessment
Was it true for the period described?
Outcome: Supported
The dated evidence matches what the claim committed to, under the criteria frozen before grading.
Scored on a plain reading. The speaker named no measure for this claim, so it was judged on the reading an informed reader would take, stated below under our interpretation. Both reviews had to find that reading fair.
- Evidence as of
- Deadline state when assessed
- No horizon
- Assessment recorded
- Policy version
- 2026-10-28.7
Rationale
The New Yorker’s October 3, 2016 report describes a May 2016 meeting where Amodei told Altman and Brockman that people believed OpenAI would release its AI source code publicly [e1]. Altman reportedly replied, “We don’t plan to release all of our source code,” followed by “But let’s please not try to correct that” [e1]. This reported exchange supports the narrow claim that Altman acknowledged the misconception and asked that it remain uncorrected at that opportunity [e1].
Limitations
- The supplied evidence consists of one reported account; no independent recording, transcript, or meeting minutes are supplied.
- The account does not establish who originated the misconception, whether it was corrected later, or what other OpenAI employees knew.
Evidence (1 item)
Supports the claim: The New Yorker,
But let’s please not try to correct that.
Why it matters here: Amodei described a belief that OpenAI would release its AI source code publicly. Altman acknowledged that universal release was not the plan and then asked that the misconception not be corrected.
- Publisher
- The New Yorker
- Kind of source
- News report
- Describes events of
- Public from
Where it was said (1)
Said once in the sources this register covers.
: Marcus on AI, OpenAI’s “Own Goal”
They knew they were misleading people and failed to take an opportunity to correct.
- Where
- paragraph 15
- Published
- 2024-03-06
- Source observed
- , live page
- Access
- full text, public
History
Assessment versions
- Assessment marcus-openais-own-goal-463360-a2: Current. Outcome: Supported. Evidence as of 2026-10-28. Public date not recorded.
Recorded events
Assessment publishedBy this site
First assessment published after both reviews and the final-text check passed.